With rural development a priority area for the government, Finance Minister Pranab Mukherjee on Friday proposed to increase the allocation for it from the current Rs 62,670 crore to Rs 66,100 crore.

He also announced to launch a new scheme to meet the "specific needs" of women farmers in the country, earmarking a fund of Rs 100 crore on this head as a sub-component of the proposed National Rural Livelihood Mission, which is being formulated by the Rural Development Ministry.

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The allocation to Backward Region Grant Fund was also enhanced by 26 per cent from the current Rs 5,800 crore to Rs 7,300 crore.

An additional Central assistance of Rs 1,200 crore is being provided for drought mitigation in the Bundelkhand region, Mukerjee announced while presenting the Budget in the Lok Sabha.

The finance minister proposed to allocate an amount of Rs 48,000 crore for the Bharat Nirman scheme of the Rural Development ministry for the fiscal 2010-11, noting that the programme has made a "substantial contribution" to the upgradation of rural infrastructure through its various programmes.

To achieve the targets of Bharat Nirman, 1,46,185 kilometres of road length was proposed to be constructed by 2012 to benefit 54,648 unconnected eligible habitations in the country.

To ensure complete farm to market connectivity, the finance minister proposed to upgrade 1,94,130 km of existing associated thorough routes.

He also proposed to allocate Rs 10,000 crore to Indira Awas Yojana of the rural development ministry. The unit cost under this scheme was raised to Rs 45,000 in plain areas and Rs 48,500 in hilly areas to cover the increase in cost of construction of houses.

"In the words of Mahatma Gandhi 'just as the universe is contained in the self, so is India contained in the villages'. For UPA government, development of rural infrastructure remains a high priority area," Mukehrjee said.

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