Mumbai: Social and caste engineering, besides allocations for agriculture and infrastructure, have emerged as the foci of the Devendra Fadnavis-led Maharashtra government’s last budget, which was presented Tuesday, just months before the state goes to the polls.
The budget, which proposes an expenditure of Rs 4.05 lakh crore for the financial year 2019-20, carries several provisions for farmers, other backward classes, the Dhangar and tribal communities, and women — suggesting that these are the groups the Fadnavis administration seeks to woo ahead of the elections.
The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP)-led state government had in February presented an interim budget of Rs 4.03 lakh crore for 2019-20, two months before the Lok Sabha election began.
On Tuesday, state Finance Minister Sudhir Mungantiwar presented the full budget, increasing the proposed expenditure for 2019-20 by Rs 1,586 crore.
Agriculture and infrastructure
At a time when most of Maharashtra is battling an acute drought, the agriculture and infrastructure sectors have got a large chunk of the total budget outlay.
“The state is firmly behind the farmers suffering from severe drought. To fight this situation persistently, grant of Rs 4,461 crore to (66.9 lakh) farmers in the 17,985 villages of 151 talukas in 26 districts has been credited to their bank accounts,” said Mungantiwar.
The government has also set aside Rs 6,410 crore for assistance in the event of natural disasters.
An evident focus on irrigation has yielded an outlay of Rs 2,720 crore for 26 incomplete projects under the Pradhan Mantri Krishi Sinchai Yojana, and Rs 1,531 crore for 91 projects in districts that are prone to drought or have recorded high numbers of farmer suicides.
The state also plans to boost irrigation through a piped distribution network, for which it has set aside Rs 12,597 crore. Fadnavis’ showpiece Jal Yukta Shivar scheme, which aims to increase the moisture content of the soil, has got an allocation of Rs 8,946 crore.
Mungantiwar added that loan waivers of Rs 24,102 crore had been sanctioned for 50.27 lakh farmers’ accounts.
“The government is going to… give benefit of this scheme to those farmers who have become ineligible for technical or other reasons,” the finance minister added.
For the infrastructure sector, the government has allocated Rs 16,225 crore for the state public works department and Rs 35,791 crore for the urban development department, with Mungantiwar also mentioning the state’s emphasis on showpiece projects such as the Mumbai Trans Harbour Link, Nagpur-Mumbai expressway, expansion of the Mumbai-Pune expressway, and the Bandra-Versova sea link.
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Reaching out to various communities
The budget seeks to quell the alleged resentment among the Other Backward Classes (OBC), who form 52 per cent of the state’s population, over the state’s decision to provide reservation to Marathas, as well as appeal to the Dhangar community, which has been agitating for a quota in jobs and education.
The state has made a special provision of Rs 1,000 crore for the Dhangars, a shepherd community that comprises about 9 per cent of the state’s population, promising to implement 22 schemes exclusively for them on the lines of those for tribals.
Similarly, the OBCs, the Vimukta Jati and Nomadic Tribes (VJNT), and Special Backward Classes have been allocated Rs 2,814.71 crore, with provisions for new hostels and scholarship schemes for students.
Among other budget announcements is a provision for industrial parks for micro, small and medium enterprises, where 30 per cent of the plots will be reserved for women, and a new self-employment scheme with an outlay of Rs 200 crore for widows, abandoned and divorcee women.
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The budget seeks to quell the alleged resentment among the Other Backward Classes (OBC), who form 52 per cent of the state’s population, over the state’s decision to provide reservation to Marathas, as well as appeal to the Dhangar community, which has been agitating for a quota in jobs and education. The state has made a special provision of Rs 1,000 crore for the Dhangars, a shepherd community that comprises about 9 per cent of the state’s population, promising to implement 22 schemes exclusively for them on the lines of those for tribals. Similarly, the OBCs, the Vimukta Jati and Nomadic Tribes (VJNT), and Special Backward Classes have been allocated Rs 2,814.71 crore, with provisions for new hostels and scholarship schemes for students.
What about the Unreserved Class Hindus? Who will provide for the Financially Deprived among them? This is just one more example of how disenfranchisement is carried out. Why is the media silent on this mass scale atrocity?