New Delhi: With an eye to the Assembly elections in 10 states and the Lok Sabha this year, the Congress party office-bearers have urged Finance Minister P Chidambaram to present a pro-poor Budget.
Congress spokesperson Verrappa Moily told reporters on Wednesday that 38 leaders — from the Congress Working Committee, general secretaries and office-bearers — met Chidambaram to press the demand and gave suggestions for the forthcoming Budget.
The Congress wants a pro-poor, farmer-centric budget to appease the rural voters. "The Congress party expects that the Budget will be pro-aam aadmi (common man)," Moily said.
The Congress members focused on the farming sector in their two-hour discussion with Chidambaram, including loan waivers to small and marginal farmers, stepping up agriculture credit and redesigning of the Public Distribution Scheme (PDS).
"In order to rescue farmers from suicide, it was suggested that crop insurance schemes be increased and weather insurance schemes be made universal," Moily said.
The party also intends to project its rural development schemes to woo the rural vote-bank. "The flagship National Rural Employment Guarantee Programme (NREGP) and other such programmes should be put on implementation trajectory with appropriate emphasis on monitoring performance on ground," Moily said.
In addition, the party feels that foreign bank-aided rural infrastructure projects focusing on backward sectors be undertaken seriously.
A universal health scheme and a housing loan scheme of Rs 100,000 to the 'aam aadmi' have also been demanded. Sources said there was a demand for increasing the loan amount, but this seems unlikely.
Though many pro-poor schemes have been demanded, the rate of interest of loans to farmers will stay at 7 per cent and the loan amount will not be raised from the present Rs 300,000, according to Moily.
The Left parties and some sections of the Congress have demanded that the interest rate be reduced to four percent as advised by the Swaminathan Commission.
Moily said the UPA government had brought it down to seven percent. "The National Democratic Alliance (NDA) government used to charge 11 percent," he said.
Not to forget rural women, it was proposed that schemes for asset building and inclusive growth be launched for them. Other schemes include scholarships for higher education, particularly for the Scheduled Caste and Schedule Tribe students, and cheaper and accessible credit to handloom artisans.
The Left had set a trend in the last three years of criticizing the UPA government budget and then asking for some rollbacks before green-signalling the budget. "We don't want the Left to get this opportunity in this election year," said a party general secretary.
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