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.