The Hindu : National : Rural Employment Scheme to get Rs. 14,300 crore

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Wednesday, Mar 01, 2006

National

National

Rural Employment Scheme to get Rs. 14,300 crore

Special Correspondent

NEW DELHI: With a view to combating rural unemployment and poverty, Union Finance Minister P. Chidambaram on Tuesday announced Rs. 14,300 crore for rural employment. Of this, Rs. 11,300 crore (including the North Eastern Region component) will be utilised under the National Rural Employment Guarantee (NREG) Scheme and Rs. 3,000 crore is to be spent on the Sampoorna Grameen Rozgar Yojana (SGRY).

A massive allocation of the funds — to the tune of Rs 3,825.73 crore — is proposed for the Panchayati Raj Ministry.

The Ministry's revised Budget for 2005-06 was Rs. 50.49 crore. A bulk of this allocation would go to the newly created Backward Regions Grants Fund.

The Rs. 3,750 crore-fund has been initiated for putting in place programmes and policies with the joint efforts of the Centre and the States that would remove barriers to growth and accelerate the development process.

Presenting the Budget Estimates for 2006-07 in Parliament, Mr. Chidambaram said since there was a legal guarantee of employment under the NREG Act, more funds would be provided as required.

There has been no allocation for the National Food for Work Programme as the scheme has been merged with the NREG Scheme.

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