- The scheme that has been described as the lifeline of rural India during the COVID-19 pandemic and lockdown was completely missing from the Finance Minister’s Budget speech.
- The Budget documents showed that the allocations for the Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Act (MGNREGA) scheme stood at 73,000 crore in 2021-22, higher than the budget estimates for the previous year, but lower than the revised estimates.
- The 2021-22 allocation, however, returns MGNREGA funding to the levels of actual expenditure in 2019-20, indicating that the Centre feels the crisis is over.
- Considering the unemployment scenario in rural India, which was at 9% even in December 2020, according to the Centre for Monitoring Indian Economy, it is inexcusable that the Finance Minister’s speech did not have a single mention of MGNREGA.
- The budgetary allocations for pensions for senior citizens, widows and the disabled in the coming year have been held at the exact same level as the original budget estimates during 2020-21.
https://www.thehindu.com/todays-paper/tp-miscellaneous/tp-others/rural-indias-lifeline-missing-in-budget-speech/article33722705.ece
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