Posted on 6-3-2002
In
Dia Straights
by Subhadra Menon Ed. of www.oneworld.net
When February draws to a close in India, the government’s budget
for the
year ahead tends to overshadow every other event, however significant.
This
year though, a sudden rush of communal violence in the state
of Gujarat is
stirring deep feelings of anguish among millions of Indians
even as they
worry about the impact the Budget is going to have on their
day to day lives.
The annual budget 2002-03 presented by the Finance Minister
on February 28
has generally underscored the Indian government’s commitment
to the second
generation of reforms. Notable features in the budget are specific
decisions related to the dismantling of the Administered Price
Mechanism
for petroleum products. It has also tried to give a greater
free market
orientation to agriculture and agricultural activities. But
again, there
are no attempts to tax agricultural incomes, even though the
Annual
Economic Survey highlights the increasing prosperity of some
sections of
rural society.
Meanwhile, it is heartening that the government finally wants
to address
that great Indian paradox: food grain surplus and starvation
happening
together. An increase in the allocation of food grains to families
below
the poverty line has been promised as a measure to counter the
country’s
swelling granaries and the serious storage and disposal problem
the
government has been facing with food grains over the last few
years. Under
the Sampoorna Grameen Rozgar Yojana – a scheme that was launched
in
September last year – a major food-for-work programme is to
be started off,
also to take care of surplus grain stocks. There will also be
enhanced
incentives for the export of food grains and the allocation
of 3 million
tonnes of free food grains to states for relief work in the
wake of natural
disasters. If these words can translate into action, something
might begin
to happen.
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