Budget allocation for minorities to
double
In what is likely to be fodder for the Opposition BJP
before the elections, the coming Union Budget is likely to double the
allocation for minorities’ welfare schemes.
Sources said the focus on minorities is in line with
the UPA’s policy to woo Muslims, who are perceived to have drifted away from
the Congress after the Babri Masjid demolition.
The BJP has already trained its guns on the Congress
for “minority appeasement” and the enhanced allocations in this Budget, which
are expected to rise to Rs 1,000 crore from Rs 500 crore currently, is likely
to whip up this campaign further.
The UPA’s efforts to win back the Muslims had seen the
government set up a ministry for minorities welfare and the Rajendra Sacchar
committee to identify the areas of discrimination against Muslims.
The Ministry of Tribal Welfare, which is to implement
another flagship scheme of the UPA — the conferring of land titles to about 80
million tribal people — would also get a hefty rise in allocations.
The Budget is likely to allocate Rs 805 crore for
tribal welfare schemes as against Rs 500 crore last year. The ministry had
projected a demand for Rs 945 crore, sources said.
The government is likely to announce incentive-based
schemes for promotion of education among tribals and minorities in the Budget.
The children of these communities have been recording
a high dropout rate and various appraisals have revealed flaws in the
implementation of existing schemes.
The Ministry of Rural Development is likely to get a
Rs 20,000 crore allocation for the flagship National Rural Employment Guarantee
Scheme.
The scheme is to be extended from the existing 330 to
all districts of the country from April 1. NREGA would form a major chunk of
the ministry’s Rs 31,500 crore allocations. The ministry had received Rs 27,500
crore last year, while it had projected a demand for Rs 41,253 crore.
Poverty alleviation schemes in urban areas would get a
major boost with allocations nearly doubling from Rs 500 crore to Rs 1,000
crore, official sources said.
Among the social sector ministries, the Ministry of
Environment and Forests is expected to get allocation of Rs 1,500 crore as
against Rs 1,351 crore last year, registering a nearly 11 per cent rise.
Likewise, the Ministry of Social Justice and
Empowerment is likely to see a marginal increase from Rs 2,001 crore to Rs
2,200 crore in the Budget.
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