New York
Union Minister Arun Jaitley on Sunday hinted that the Rs 500 a month cash dole to small farmers may be increased in the future as the government’s resources grow and said states can top up this amount with their own income support schemes.
He also slammed Congress President Rahul Gandhi for ridiculing the scheme announced in the Interim Budget for 2019-20 by equating it to Rs 17 a day dole, saying the Opposition leader must “grow up” and realise that he is contesting a national election and not a college union poll.
“This is the first year where it has begun. I am sure as the government resources improve, this can be increased,” he said. On nearly 15 crore landless farmers being left out of the scheme, he said they have rural employment guarantee scheme MNREGA plus other benefits for the rural population.
The present government, he said, is “starting off over and above the lakhs of crores we are putting into rural areas.” “We are starting off with Rs 75,000 crore a year and I foresee this amount increasing in the years to come. And if the states top it up, some states have already started with the scheme, I think the others must emulate them, it will increase,” he added.
He said most of the central schemes are divided into 60:40 ratio, so “let us enhance this to 60:40 in the spirit of cooperative federalism” and instead of “giving criticism, let the states give 40 .” On Gandhi’s criticism of the Budget proposal, he said, “I think he needs to grow up. He must realise that he is contesting a national election not a college union one.”
On his predecessor P Chidambaram’s criticism that the Interim Budget was an “account for vote” and not a ‘vote on account’, he said, “I have no problem with monies being spent on either of these two accounts. But I have a serious problem when monies go into personal accounts.”
“Some state governments have started it,” he said. “So my advise to what I call the ‘Nawabs of Negativity’ is ask your own state governments to top it off with their own income support schemes. Ideally, like the GST, this is a case where all political parties must defy party lines and in the spirit of cooperative federalism, have a Centre plus state scheme.”
Taking on the Congress, he said the comments by the leaders of the principal opposition party and “some other compulsive contrarians” indicate that they have a complete lack of understanding of the subject.
“Others have been in power much longer than we have been and did nothing. There is a real problem in India, both with regard to the urban-rural divide, which is reflective of the quality of life available in rural areas, and the state of agriculture. You have to look at both these issues compositely,” he said.
