HYDERABAD: The special emphasis on social sectors like health, education, agriculture and rural development has the ruling TRS in TS give thumbs up for the Union Budget 2016-17. However, the budget has failed to address requirements of women, the TRS felt.
“The budget has a lot to offer for farmers and middle-class people,” opined Nizamabad MP K Kavitha. The Rs 87,000 crore allocation to agriculture sector and the decision to credit fertiliser subsidy directly to the bank accounts of farmers are welcome steps. For a state like Telangana which is experiencing severe drought for two consecutive years, these are welcome proposals,” she said adding that they are yet to arrive at a conclusion as to how much allocations TS will get.
Kavitha also welcomed the allocation of Rs 19,000 crore for road development. “The development of village connectivity indirectly enhances rural development,” she observed.
Kavitha, who earlier raised pitch for increase of Income Tax limit for woman employees to Rs 6 lakh, was not happy over the Budget not offering much to the women. “The only saving grace was the allocation of Rs 2,000 crore for extending LPG gas connections to poor women,” she said. “On the face of it, the Budget looks good,” Kavitha opined. “But we have to analyse various aspects and allocations of the Budget,” she added. She however, said the TRS MPs will do their best to get the most of allocations from the budget for the state. Another TRS MP B Vinod Kumar said Arun Jaitley’s third budget has succeeded in addressing the ‘reality of India’ and takes into account unfashionable things such as ongoing agrarian crisis. “The budget shows that after a series of electoral defeats, the Modi government has learned to listen to the people of India,” he said.
In its first Budget, the NDA derided the MGNREGA as a testament to the Congress’s failure and there was even a talk that the scheme might be scrapped. It has now done a complete U-turn and made the highest ever allocation to rural employment scheme by providing an allocation of Rs 38,500 crore. The government could have considered introducing an inheritance tax. This would have been a progressive tax on the rich and valuable revenue for the government. It is already in force in many countries and should be introduced in India as well, Vinod Kumar suggested. He also welcomed the decision to appoint a committee to review the FRBM Act. “This is of special importance to Telangana. Being a revenue surplus state, Telangana is seeking an increased borrowing limit of 3.5% of the state GDP. The committee should take a decision on this at the earliest,” the MP said.