Diwali is over and budget time is here. Even at the best of times, it’s a semi-political exercise. But this time it’s likely to be an entirely political one because between 2022 and 2024, there are 16 assembly elections.
Four of the five of these—Gujarat, Uttar Pradesh, Uttarakhand, Haryana, Jharkhand—are in the Hindi belt that forms the backbone of the BJP. All of them have either exhausted or have nearly exhausted their central support funding for MGNREGS, which has emerged as a lifeline for the rural poor during the Coronavirus (Covid-19) pandemic.
These States need more money, as do the other 11
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