The Hindu : National : Government policies favour the rich, says Minister

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Wednesday, Nov 17, 2004

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National

Government policies favour the rich, says Minister

By Our Staff Correspondent

NEW DELHI, NOV. 16. The Union Rural Development Minister, Raghuvansh Prasad Singh, today criticised the Centre for its economic policies that "favoured the rich and discriminated against the poor."

"The Finance Ministry has no clue on how to draft the policies, the basic principle of which should be to hike the prices of luxury items and reduce the prices of products used by the poor," he said inaugurating Saras-2004, put up by the Rural Development Ministry, at the ongoing International Trade Fair at Pragati Maidan.

Referring to the increase and the subsequent lowering of petrol prices, Mr. Singh asked how else could one explain this reduction while there had been no attempt to lower the cost of diesel that would have helped the ordinary people. He would take up the matter with the Finance Ministry.

Suggesting a reduction in the interest rate on the loans taken by rural artisans, Mr. Singh said that corporate houses were the highest defaulters and there were non-performing government assets worth Rs. 1.5 lakh crores. He had spoken to the Finance Minister twice in this regard. "It would be impossible to remove unemployment and poverty if the banks gave loans for luxury items on a lower interest rate than for the money borrowed by the rural artisans for self-employment schemes," the Minister said.

"This is unjust. Car loans and house loans attract an interest rate of seven to nine per cent while unemployed youth wanting to start a small scale industry or a self-help group pays 10-12 per cent interest on loan," he said.

Rural road projects

Mr. Singh sought more transparency in the identification of the core network for the implementation of the district rural roads plan (DRRP).

Chairing the second general body meeting of the National Rural Roads Development Agency (NRRDA) here today, Mr. Singh asked the officers to take the lead in helping the States to adopt appropriate low-cost need-based technologies including gravel roads in order to provide basic all-weather access to far-flung rural areas of the country.

Pointing out that all habitations, with a population of more than 500 people, would be connected by 2007, Mr. Singh said the ambitious Pradhan Mantri Gram Sadak Yojana was one of the key components of the poverty reduction strategy of the Government. Funds had been arranged from the World Bank and the Asian Development Bank.

The Central Road Fund Act was proposed to be amended to enable leveraging of the diesel cess to generate additional funds for the programme. The NRRDA would play an important role in this process also by becoming a Special Purpose Vehicle for leveraging diesel cess.

Besides ensuring the quality of construction and strict monitoring, adequate attention should be paid to the maintenance of the roads so that poverty reduction achieved through rural connectivity could be sustained for a long time.

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