The Government has shown a serious concern towards addressing the issue of rural distress which is fast emerging as a major political issue and given the Opposition opportunity to blame the Modi Government of only doling out concession to corporates. The Government will spend Rs 14.34 lakh crore in 2018-19 for construction of 3.17 lakh km of roads, 51 lakh new houses, 1.88 crore toilets, and providing electricity connections to 1.75 crore new households in the rural areas, the Finance Minister Arun Jaitley said on Thursday while presenting the Budget in Parliament.
“As my proposals outlined indicate, focus of the Government next year will be on providing maximum livelihood opportunities in rural areas by spending more on livelihood, agriculture and allied activities and construction of rural infrastructure,” the Minister said.
Jaitley also announced increase in allocation for the National Rural Livelihood Mission (NRLM) to Rs 5,750 crore in 2018-19 from Rs 4,500 crore.
MGNREGS resources have also been used convergently with the PMAY(G) and during the last three years over 71.50 lakh houses have already been completed which include 17.83 lakh PMAY(G) houses.
Another 33 lakh PMAY(G) homes are expected to be completed by March 31, 2018 as they are already at an advanced stage. The Department already started work on 5,000 Clusters spread over 50,000 Gram Panchayats in partnership with the State Governments to simultaneously address all the dimensions of poverty effectively, said the Finance Minister.
Talking about the ongoing Ganga cleanless programme, he said that a total 187 projects have been sanctioned under the Namami Gange programme for infrastructure development, river surface cleaning, rural sanitation and other interventions at a cost of Rs 16,713 crore. 47 projects have been completed and remaining projects are at various stages of execution.
All 4465 Ganga Grams - villages on the bank of river - have been declared open defecation free, he said. He further said, the government has identified 115 aspirational districts taking various indices of development in consideration for making them model districts of development.