Will it be a Budget for 'Bharat'?

New Delhi, Feb 24 (UNI) In many ways the Budget 2007-08 is likely to focus on rural India or 'Bharat' and indications are that there would be an expansion of the flgaship programme of the UPA government -- The National Rural Employment Guarantee scheme (NREGS) -- and a substantial hike in allocations for the education and health sectors.

The much-hyped programme of providing assured employment in rural areas- NREGS- is likely to be expanded from the existing 200 districts to 250 districts, nothwithstanding the fact that last year's expenditure on the scheme has fallen much shorter of the allocated amount for the programme.

The Planning Commission is preparing a paper on selection of the new disticts, informed sources said here.

The sources said the total resource requirement for NREGS in 2006-07 has been much less than budgeted and the government is of the view that the expansion in coverage can be met within the existing budget provision of Rs 11,300 crore. The NREGS is a demand-driven scheme.

The National Rural Employment Guarantee Act, 2005, assures every rural household at least 100 days of manual work at minimum wages.

Initially in effect in 200 districts, the Act is expected to be extended to the entire country over a five-year period. Unlike employment programmes in the past that were supply driven, bureaucracy controlled and suiffering from large leakages, including misuse of funds arising from false muster rolls and poor project design, the NREGS is demand driven, based on a legal right and requires Panchayati Raj Institutions to select projects relevant to the needs of the community.

The lessons of the BJP's defeat at the last general elections have not been forgetten. Besides, economists like Nobel Laureate Amartya Sen, have for long been stressing that for growth to be sustainable and inclusive it is necesssary to ensure that basic education and health are provided to those who needed it most-- the rural and urban poor.

The UPA government took this cue and listed such programmes-- along with the supporting parties of the Left-- in the National Common Minimum Programme. And even though, the Left parties and the government may not see eye to eye on many of the reform initiatives they are one in the provision of basic facilities to the man on the street.

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