Poll-bound states get special focus in FM's Budget; Rs 2.27 lakh crore infra projects for TN, WB, Kerala, Assam

Sitharaman in her speech specifically announced Rs 2.27 lakh highway projects for four states - Tamil Nadu, West Bengal, Assam and Kerala

Presenting India's first paperless Union Budget, Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman has packaged reaching out with restrictions of fiscal prudence --- be it pushing the development plan with goodies in poll-bound states or firming the messaging to rural India in the backdrop of the ongoing farmers' protest against the government for more than two months.

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Opposition parties, however, slammed the Union Budget as "100 percent visionless" even as the BJP hailed the Budget as an exercise in accordance with the expectation of public welfare, inclusivity and 'Atma Nirbhar Bharat' (self-reliant India).

While Prime Minister Narendra Modi said this Budget has a special focus on strengthening the agriculture sector and boosting farmers' income and "villages and farmers are at its heart,'' Congress leader Rahul Gandhi alleged that the government plans to hand over India's assets to crony capitalists.

"We have taken the approach of widening new opportunities for growth, creation of new opportunities for our youth, giving a new dimension to human resources, developing new sectors for infrastructure development, and moving towards technology and bringing new reforms in this Budget," Modi said.

While the ruling party insisted that the Budget has taken care of every class including farmers, middle class, poor and women, the Opposition said the poor, the farmers and the marginalised were ignored and the Budget was pro-rich.

BSP chief Mayawati said crores of poor people, farmers and the working class of the country are tired of attractive promises and hollow claims. Samajwadi Party said the Budget will increase the problems of farmers and the common man.

Defence Minister Rajnath Singh, who has repeatedly, during the farmer agitation, projected himself as 'son of a farmer' insisted that several new policies and programmes to support India's farmers, agriculture, infrastructure and reinvigoration of human resource have also been announced in the Budget.

The Budget, which laid emphasis on public spending on rural segments, public distribution, transport, and health, however, by and large, seems to have reached out to all sections, whose support is crucial to the ruling dispensation. It has also sought to give an edge to 'Atma Nirbhar' pitch of the government.

In what could help the government blunt the backlash on the Covid front due to massive reverse migration and poor health infrastructure leading to hardships to the common man, the government announced doubling of the healthcare spending in the annual budget and a slew of economics to support and facilitate the economy’s reset.

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Reaching out to youths, a core constituency of Narendra Modi-led BJP, which had voted overwhelmingly for him in 2014 and 2019 Lok Sabha polls, the Union Budget mooted amendment to the Apprenticeship Act and realign the National Apprenticeship Training Scheme for a post-education apprenticeship, training of graduates and diploma holders in engineering.

While the Budget proposed to come up with a special scheme providing Rs 1,000 crore for the welfare of tea workers in two poll-bound states - Assam and West Bengal, the highlight of the measures announced for states going to polls was the announcement major road infrastructure projects including a 3,500 km National Highway work in the state of Tamil Nadu at an investment of Rs 1.03 lakh crore, 1,100 km of National Highway work in Kerala at an investment of Rs 65,000 crore, 675 km of highway work in the state of West Bengal at a cost of Rs 25,000 crore and road work of 1,300 kms worth of more than Rs 34,000 crore in Assam in the coming three years.

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While the BJP is ruling Assam, it is betting big on West Bengal, where it won 18 Lok Sabha seats in 2019 Lok Sabha polls, a nine-time jump from just two in 2014. In Tamil Nadu, BJP has gained some traction and is trying to emerge powerful through political alliances and by raising Hindutva issues.

Sitharaman also announced substantial investments in the development of modern fishing harbours and fish-landing centres in five major fishing harbours, including one each in poll-bound Kerala ( Kochi), Tamil Nadu (Chennai) and West Bengal (Petuaghat).

These, the Finance Minister said, will be developed as hubs of economic activity. She also proposed to establish a Multipurpose Seaweed Park in Tamil Nadu to transform the lives of coastal communities hoping this will provide large scale employment and additional incomes by promoting seaweed cultivation.

Also Read | Budget pushes health, infra spends; no change in personal income tax slabs; no Covid-19 cess

A day after Prime Minister Narendra Modi pitched for modernising agriculture, the Finance Minister in her Budget speech announced Agriculture Infrastructure and Development Cess (AIDC) as she emphasised the immediate need to improve agricultural infrastructure in order to produce more while conserving and processing agricultural output efficiently.

"Our Government is committed to the welfare of farmers," she said as she listed the government's measures to provide better crop prices to farmers in the last more than six years of the Modi government.

"The MSP regime has undergone a sea change to assure a price that is at least 1.5 times the cost of production across all commodities. The procurement has also continued to increase at a steady pace. This has resulted in an increase in payment to farmers substantially," she said amid Opposition members in Lok Sabha shouting slogans against three farm laws.

Allocation for rural infrastructure development was also increased to Rs 40,000 crore for the next fiscal from Rs 30,000 crore in the last financial year.