Budget high on rhetoric, but low on action

MUMBAI: Maharashtra’s 2007-08 Budget acknowledges the glaring regional disparities within the state, but offers little to correct it. Likewise, the Budget terms farm suicides in Vidarbha as a matter of great concern, but no new schemes to supplement the ongoing state efforts as well as centrally-sponsored relief schemes have been proposed.

The finance minister merely took stock of the measures and announced continuance of the schemes that are part of the state government’s relief module.

Low irrigation potential is one of the major causes of agrarian distress in Vidarbha, Marathwada and north Maharashtra. The Budget, however, preferred to steer clear of regional inequity on the irrigation front.

An allocation of Rs 4,521 crore has been proposed for the irrigation sector, but that’s for the entire state. The Budget is silent on the irrigation component allocated for each region. Going by the government’s admission, more than Rs 41,000 crore is the estimated cost of around 1,250 pending irrigation projects in the state.

A plan to expedite work for those which are close to completion has been announced, but maximum benefit of this programme is likely to be reaped by western Maharashtra.

In sectors other than irrigation, the budget marked an outlay of Rs 1,400 crore, up from Rs 1,000 crore annual outlay for the past four years, including Rs 483.92 crore and Rs 281.75 crore for activation of agriculture pumps.

The budget, however, notes that expenditure in eight development sectors other than irrigation has not been up to the mark. On farm suicides, the budget has turned out to be a huge disappointment.

Except for meagre provision in the 2007-08 fiscal for previously sanctioned schemes, the budget does not offer anything new to consolidate the relief measures. Ironically, the Planning Commission had pulled up the state for regional imbalance and suicides.