Reduction in the allocation for the Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Act (MGNREGA) scheme in the Union Budget is nothing but denial of work to labourers, said Ivan D’Souza, MLC, here on Sunday.
Talking to reporters, Mr. D’Souza said that the allocation to MGNREGA and other 219 schemes of the Union government related to 27 departments have been cut down. The allocation to MGNREGA has been reduced from ₹71,000 crore in 2019-20 to ₹61,500 for this fiscal.
“The shortfall is ₹9,500 crore. This is nothing but denial of employment to the needy,” Mr. D’Souza said.
The Union government has also cut down on food subsidy and thus made it difficult for the State governments to provide 20kg of rice and other cereals to poor families.
“The Budget has little to offer for farmers in boosting their income. Instead of making more investment in setting up cold chain at the district level for the storage of perishable commodities, the government has announced UDAN scheme that would only help a section of farmers. Cut in fertilizer subsidy will lead to rise in the input cost for farmers,” he said.
He said that the Budget had little to offer for Karnataka from where the Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman has been elected to the Rajya Sabha and from where 25 BJP MPs were elected to the Lok Sabha.
“Though announcing that the government would provide 20 % of equity and facilitate external assistance up to 60% of project cost for the 148-km-long suburban rail project for Bengaluru, Ms. Sitharaman has failed to make any allocations for this much delayed project,” he added.
