By Pervez Bari, TwoCircles.net,
Bhopal: The Social Democratic Party of India, (SDPI), has welcomed the Union Budget for the next fiscal, presented by the Finance Minister Mr. Pranab Mukherjee, on some aspects partially but expressed its dismay on others where the budget was not up to the expectations of the common man or it has remained silent.
SDPI national general secretary Mr. A. Sayeed in a statement has hailed the hike in the budget allocation for Minority Affairs but it is only about 50 per cent which is far from satisfactory looking at the deteriorating condition of the minorities, specially the Muslim community. The raise in the allocation should have been much more, to say the least if not more, then at least 100 per cent, he added.
The announcement of 24 per cent hike in the budget allocation for education is a right step. It is good to see that the Finance Minister announced grants of Rs. 50 crore each for Aligarh Muslim University’s upcoming campuses at Murshidabad in West Bengal and Malappuram in Kerala. The minister also sanctioned Rs. 200 crore for the Maulana Azad Education Foundation established for the development of minorities.
Mr. Sayeed welcomed the move that people living below the poverty line will receive cash as subsidies and the process will start by March 2012. A committee under Unique Identification Authority of India chairman Mr. Nandan Nilekani will be set up to design a mechanism that will allow millions of people to benefit from various subsidy schemes on food-grain and fuel. The huge leakages in various subsidy schemes like the public distribution scheme have led to the poor not benefiting much from various social welfare programmes of the federal government, he pointed out.
This budget is as bad as earlier budgets as the main demand of Vidarbha cotton farmers of complete lifting of ban on cotton export and much needed bailout package for dying cotton farmers and rehabilitation of 10,000 farm widows victims have been completely ignored when the Finance Minister has increased Agriculture outlay by Rs.1 lakh crore, the statement stated.
Meanwhile, the budget does not mention adequate provision for Bharat Nirman, Sarva Shiksha Abhiyan or Pradhan Mantri Gram Sadak Yojana. He said that the states lack sufficient resources for implementing the Right to Education Act. The budget does not mention anything special about this, he added.
The nine percent growth rate has no meaning until benefits reach out to the common people. No concrete steps have been mentioned to combat the problem of black money, he further added.
Though the allocation for the social sector has been increased 17 per cent in the budget proposals for 2011-12, little increase has been seen in the funds for women and child development. With an allocation of Rs. 12,650 crore – Rs. 2,280 crore more than last year’s Rs. 10,370 crore, the allocation for women and child development in the budget is still insufficient, the statement said. ([email protected])