FM woos rural population: Mission to bring 10 mn households out of poverty

The allocation of MGNREGA has also been raised to Rs 48,000 crore

In a major boost to the agriculture and rural sector to ensure completion of unfinished tasks before the 2019 elections, Union Finance Minister Arun Jaitley on Wednesday raised the allocation for agriculture and rural sector in 2017-18 Budget by 24 per cent to over Rs 1,87,000 crore with a brand new mission to make poverty free Gram Panchayats.

The announcements should spur spending in rural areas which has been hit due to demonetisation impacting the sales of major Fast-moving consumer goods (FMCG) companies.

The farm credit target has been raised to Rs 10 lakh crore as against Rs 9 lakh crore in 2016-17 Budget Estimates.

That apart National Bank for Agriculture and Rural Development (NABARD) will be given an extra Rs 4,000 to computerise 6,300 functional primary agriculture societies to improve their lending power.

The marquee Pradhan Mantri Fasal Bima Yojana would get extra sum along with target to increase the coverage to atleast 50 per cent of damaged area by 2019.

On rural areas, the finance minister announced a brand new Mission Antodaya to bring at least 10 million households out of poverty in the next few years through an integrated approach monitored in 36 parameters.

That apart, the allocation for Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Ac (MGNREGA) has been raised to Rs 48,000 crore, which is just Rs 500 crore more than the revised estimate of 2016-17.

The target of constructing farm ponds through MGNREGA has also been revised while rural roads programme gets Rs 19,000 crore allocation, same as 2016-17 to connect all unconnected habitations by 2019.

The allocation under rural housing programme has also been raised to Rs 23,000 crore as against Rs 15,000 crore allocated in 2016-17 to meet the additional target of building 1.33 lakh houses by 2019.

The National Rural Drinking Water Programme is also being revamped to focus on arsenic hit areas.

Overall, as expected, the big idea behind the rural push seems to ensure the completion of existing programmes of the government with extra funds before the next general elections.