The Finance Ministry allocated 22 per cent less funds for MGNREGA in revised estimates for the current financial year (2023-24), as compared to Rs 1.1 lakh crore sought by the Rural Development Ministry,
The performance of agriculture sector during the year 2007-08, despite its record production of food grains, is still a cause for concern due its low rate of growth (2.6%) affecting the well being of farmers in various parts of the country. This calls for bold measures for bringing about a turn around of the agriculture sector and the announcements made by the finance minister are a pointer to such measures. The loan waiver for marginal and small farmers and the one-time settlement (OTS) of loans for other farmers and their entitlement for fresh loans with a target of Rs 2,80,000 crore during 2008-09 is expected to take care of the issues relating to the accessibility of credit from institutional sources and reduce the dependence of the resource poor farmers on money lender. The implementation of the Vaidyanathan Committee recommendations for revitalising the long-term co-operative credit structure ensures availability of increased credit for private investments in agriculture by farmers. The contribution of Rs 5,000 crore to the NRC(ST) Funds of Nabard helps in ensuring that the demands of the farmers for their production needs are met. Financial inclusion of the disadvantaged sections is facilitated through opening of additional bank branches in districts with predominant minority population, enhancing the income limits to Rs 18,000 in rural areas under the DRI scheme and access to Janashree insurance product of LIC for all women SHGs credit linked to banks. The increase in the corpus of RIDF by Rs 2,000 crore, coupled with the increased allocation under Rashtriya Krishi Vikas Yojana, Accelerated Irrigation Benefit Programme, the Rainfed Area Development rainfed farming and the setting up of the Irrigation and Water Resources Finance Corporation will facilitate in bringing more area under irrigation as well as in conserving land and water resources, critical to the performance of the sector. These investments will also help in stepping up investments in the private sector also. Various other measures announced for improving the performance of the sector include stepping up funds under the National Horticulture Mission, creation of special funds for plantation crops like cardamom, coffee and rubber, introduction of insurance scheme for select plantation and horticulture crops, etc. The overall thrust in the Budget is not only in boosting the performance of the agriculture sector but in ensuring that there is overall rural development through providing infrastructure- both physical and social, social security, human resource capacity development, off-season employment under NREGA, etc. These should help in achieving the goals of full employment, abolition of poverty and elimination of inequality in the medium term. The writer is Nabard chairman
Says area under orchards increases to 97000 hectares, about 4000 hectares of additional land in Jammu division is being brought under fruit plantation under technology Mission for Integrated Development of Horticulture during the current financial year raising the total area under horticulture to 97000 hectares. For this purpose, about 5 lakh fruit plants are being supplied to the farmers on subsidized rates. These fruit plants varieties include apple, pears, peach, apricot, walnut, citrous, peacun-nut and olive plants. This was stated by the Minister for Horticulture and PHE Mohammad Dilawar Mir while addressing a gathering of tribal Bakarwals in Charawa village near historic Mansar lake today. The Minister announced that 50 hectares of land in Majalta block will be brought under next year for which about 1250 plants would be distributed among the farmers. He also announced 5 water storage tanks in block Majalta for providing irrigation facilities to the orchardists. He also sanctioned a water reservoir in Charawa village for storage of drinking water. The Minister said that the government have launched an ambitious programme under technology mission to train farmers about latest horticulture technology. He said village women and schoolgirls are being imparted training in fruit and vegetable preservation under technology mission. The Minister said that village Charawa is proposed to be developed as model tourist village under rural tourism development programme to showcase tribal life style, rural cultures and their village life. He said necessary infrastructure in this connection would be developed in the village to make it attracting for domestic and foreign tourists. He said nomadic life style of Bakarwals in Majalta block provide them with perfect skills to become mountain trekking guides for tourists adding that this manpower potential would be exploited optimally to upgrade living standard of the people in the area. Earlier, The Minister inspected renovation works in the famous water body of Mansar lake and directed the concerned officers to make this picnic spot more attractive for tourists. He called for keeping the water body neat and pollution free. ASP asks central govt to frame farmer friendly
The Union Government, which has launched several schemes for inclusive growth and tackling the rural-urban divide, seems to be dragging its feet in sanctioning rural development projects submitted by the State Government. The Centre has not cleared 21 rural projects estimated at nearly Rs. 200 crore, and now officials are of the view that the State is unlikely to get the projects sanctioned. Though the Department of Rural Development and Panchayat Raj submitted proposals for various projects two years ago under the Swarnajayanti Gram Swaraj Yojana (SGSY), the Centre is yet to clear them. Nine of the 21 projects are related to dairy activities in various districts (Rs. 79.58 crore), three to rural livelihood and employment opportunities (Rs. 44.23crore), two are aimed at providing better marketing infrastructure in villages (Rs. 14.35 rore) and two each to set up incubation centres (Rs. 25.57 crore), rehabilitation of Devadasis (Rs. 24.64 crore) and setting up of a "Kushal Gram', a marketing complex for SGSY beneficiaries of the District Rural Development Foundation and B.V.V. Sangha of Bagalkot (Rs. 4.67 crore). The department has submitted nine detailed project reports to promote dairy activities in Bangalore Rural and Bangalore Urban, Mandya, Bellary, Uttara Kannada, Hassan, Mysore, Chamarajanagar, Davangere and Belgaum districts. To implement these projects, Central assistance of Rs. 59.8 crore has been sought, while Rs. 19.78 crore is to be contributed by the district-level milk unions.
<p>This report presents an overview of the impact of rural livelihood programmes supported by DFID in the context of the Millennium Development Goals, and explores some of the lessons learned under headings of income generation and rural growth, better management of natural resources, targeting the poorest and marginalised, and local institutions and self-governance.
JOBS: Allocation for the scheme, which provides job on demand to the rural population, is Rs 16,000 crore. The National Rural Employment Guarantee Programme, the flagship programme of the UPA government, which provides job on demand to the rural population, has been extended to all the 596 rural districts in the country with effect from April 1, 2008. The allocation made for the scheme with legislative backing is Rs 16,000 crore. For 2007-08, the allocation for the scheme implemented in 330 districts was Rs 12,000 crore. The finance minister assured that as the scheme was not an Act, the government would provide financial backing for it, no matter what the amount. But, according to the Ministry of Rural Development, till December 2007, the NREGA was able to spend only 60 per cent of the funds available. At the same time, the NREGA was able to provide more than 85 crore man-days of work to more than 25 million households in 2007-08. The finance minister also said that as long as the country experienced a growth rate of more than 8.5 per cent, it could create jobs required for all segments. For Swarnajayanti Gram Swarozgar Yojana, a programme providing self-employment to the rural poor, an allocation of Rs 2,150 crore was made, up Rs 350 crore from Rs 1,800 crore provided in Budget 2007-08. While letting the individual ministries like labour and employment carry on with their own skill development programmes, the finance minister announced establishment of a non-profit corporation with the mission of imparting world-class skills for the emerging economy. The government will provide Rs 1,000 crore, while Rs 15,000 crore will be raised from other sources. The government has alloted Rs 750 crore for the upgrade of 300 ITIs next year. It intends to upgrade 1,396 out of the 1,896 government ITIs in public-private partnership by the end of the Eleventh Plan period, which will provide quality technicians to the industry.
BHARAT NIRMAN: Allocation increased to Rs 31,280 crore against Rs 24,603 crore in 2007-08. Bharat Nirman, the flagship programme of the UPA government for rural infrastructure, with a cost of Rs 1,74,000 crore and a fast approaching deadline of 2009, got an allocation of Rs 31,280 crore this Budget. The highlight this year is the increase in allocation for rural housing. Bharat Nirman targets six development components, viz rural access to housing, roads, drinking water, telephony, electrification and irrigation. For the rural housing scheme, called Indira Awas Yojana, which benefits only those who have land, the Budget provides an increased subsidy for building houses under the programme. The government subsidy of Rs 25,000 crore for houses in the plains will now increase to Rs 35,000 crore. The public sector banks have been asked to give up to Rs 20,000 in loans at an interest of 4 per cent for the Indira Awas Yojana houses. About 6 million houses are targeted to be built under the programme by 2009. So far, 5.1 million houses have been constructed, according to Finance Minister P Chidambaram. OUTLAYS vs OUTCOMES Expenditure is up, education is not % children who can Class Read* Subtract Divide 1 3 3.9 1.5 2 9 14.2 3.7 3 21.6 31.1 11.2 4 42.5 34.7 27.6 5 58.7 31.9 42.4 6 71.7 27.8 54.2 7 79.7 23.4 62.8 8 86.6 18.3 71.6 Average 41.6 23.1 30.1 Note: Children who can divide can subtract as well Source: Pratham 2007 * Read a Class 2 text The allocation of Rs 5,400 crore for rural housing is up from Rs 4,400 crore last year. Bharat Nirman, as a whole, received Rs 31,280 crore, compared to Rs 24,603 crore in 2007-08. Bharat Nirman's component on drinking water, implemented through the Rajiv Gandhi Drinking Water Mission, got another feature under the Budget with the finance minister allocating a separate amount of Rs 200 crore for providing drinking water in schools. The allocation for the scheme has also been enhanced from Rs 6,500 crore last year to Rs 7,300 crore this year. The Budget was silent on rural access to telephony under Bharat Nirman except saying that 52 villages were getting access to telephone, well ahead of the target. The scheme targets reaching over 66,000 villages by 2009 and can progress at a rate of 45 houses per day. The Rajiv Gandhi Grameen Vidyutikaran Yojana, which aims at providing electricity connections to all villages by 2009, has been allocated Rs 5,500 crore this year. Access to irrigation under Bharat Nirman got a fillip with the Accelerated Irrigation Benefit Programme allocations getting almost doubled from Rs 11,000 crore to Rs 20,000 crore. Under the programme, 24 major and medium irrigation projects and 753 minor irrigation projects will be completed in this financial year, creating an irrigation potential of 500,000 hectares. The scheme targets 10 million hectares. While six million hectares are to be covered under major and medium projects, one million hectares are to be brought under micro irrigation. Chidambaram said that 548,000 hectares were brought under drip and sprinkler irrigation since 2006, while, with a budgetary allocation of Rs 500 crore, 400,000 hectares were being targeted for coverage this year.
The National Rural Employment Guarantee Act 2005 is a law whereby: any adult who is willing to do unskilled manual work at the minimum wage is entitled to being employed on local public
Residents of Panihari village are now a happy lot. They are celebrating freedom from floods for the first time in living memory. Agricultural wages have incresed across the district in the past one year. They say their lives have improved because of the National Rural Employment Guarantee Act (NREGA).
The national goals of removal of all forms of social injustice, inclusive development and removal of income and non-income poverty will remain elusive unless we enrich the practice of local democracy.
This document focuses on the role of local institutions in adaptation to climate change. It does so under the belief that climate impacts will affect disadvantaged social groups more disproportionately, and that local institutions centrally influence how different social groups gain access to and are able to use assets and resources.
