Rural Development, IT, H R D Ministries most favoured in Budget

New Delhi, Feb 28 (UNI) The Ministry of Rural Development has walked away with the lion's share of the Central Plan outlay in the Union Budget for 2007-08.

This is in keeping with Finance Minister P Chidambaram's aim to make the budget more ''oriented towards inclusive growth.'' The Communication and IT Ministry is the most favoured by the Finance Minister.

Human Resource Development, Power and Railways are the other ministries which have seen maximum hike in their outlays for this year.

The Rs 33,153 crore for the Rural Development Ministry is an increase of over Rs 10,000 crore over the previous year's outlay of Rs 30,994 crore.

The IT and Communications Ministry has got Rs 27,626 crore, which is Rs 8,471 crore more than the allocation of the previous year.

It is closely followed by the Ministry of Human Resource Development which has claimed Rs 28,674 crore of the total outlay, showing an increase of Rs 7,929 crore over the previous year.

Power comes next with a share of Rs 33,153 crore, recording an increase of Rs 7,827 crore.

The Railways have got Rs 30,275 crore which is Rs 5,339 crore more than what they got the previous year.

UNI