Raghuvansh satisfied with Rs 41,000 cr allocation for rural dev

New Delhi, Feb 28 (UNI) Even though his demand for expansion of the National Rural Employment Guarantee Scheme to 200 new districts has not been fulfilled with the budget extending it only to 130 new districts, Rural Development Minister Raghuvansh Prasad Singh today said he was satisfied with the Rs 41,000 crore allocation made for the rural development.

The budgetary provisions for rural development has increased from Rs 31,000 crore last year to Rs 41,000 crore in 2006-07, Dr Singh said. The ministry had made a demand for Rs 50,000 crore from the Finance Ministry for implementing all its programmes, he informed.

Regarding the expansion of NREGS to 330 districts from the existing 200 districts, Dr Singh said that he had demanded it to be implemented in 400 districts but on Prime Minister Manmohan Singh's intervention he has agreed to 330 new districts.

The budget has made an initial allocation of Rs 12,000 crore, including NER component, for the NREGS which was launched on February 2, last year.

He said that budget was a step forward for the progress of rural India and a step in the right direction for the Eleventh Five Year Plan.

''It is a good beginning in the right direction,'' he told UNI.

However, Dr Singh felt that more could have been done for the poor sections of the society, especially in rural areas, to make the budget more balanced.

He hoped that the decision to ban forward trade of commodities would bring down inflation and prices of essential commodities like rice, wheat and pulses would come down.

Dr Singh said that rebate in the income tax and the steps to check price rise were welcome.

Finance Minister P Chidambaram while presenting the General Budget for the year 2007-08 said that NREGS was a demand-driven scheme carrying a legal guarantee of employment and that the budget allocation for it would have to be supplemented according to need.

In addition, a sum of Rs 2,800 crore will be provided for Sampoorna Gramin Rozgar Yojana (SGRY) for rural employment in the districts not covered by NREGS. Besides, the allocation for Swaranjayanti Gram Swarozgar Yojana (SGSY) will be increased to Rs 1,800 crore ,including NER component, next year from Rs 1,200 crore in the current year to strengthen it.

UNI