If anyone thought the promises made in the Common Minimum Programme were about to be fulfilled in one big bang (costing around Rs 50,000 crore (Rs 500 billion) according to some estimates) they were far off the mark.
Finance Minister P. Chidambaram made it pretty clear on Thursday, that it wasn't going to happen in a hurry, but over a period of five years.
For one, he argued that the Budget had been presented so late, that the government had 'only about six months to achieve (its) objectives for this year'.
In the event, while the FM's Budget speech referred to the CMP frequently the manner in which he's chosen to fulfil the promises is, to use his words, 'innovative'. That means most of the funds will be obtained by cannibalising existing programmes.
The famous Sampoorna Gramin Rozgar Yojana, or rural employment programme that created over 763 million mandays of jobs in 2003-04, for instance, is to see its allocations slashed from Rs 9,640 crore (Rs 96.40 billion) to Rs 4,590 crore (Rs 45.90 billion) in 2004-05.
The CMP's biggest promise, of course, was the National Employment Guarantee Act that would legally guarantee at least 100 days of employment for at least one person per family in each rural, urban poor and lower middle-class household.
Chidambaram has promised the government will soon come out with the act, and meanwhile has promised a food-for-work programme in 150 districts. He said the funds would be pulled out from schemes like the SGRY that have been allocated around Rs 6,000 crore (Rs 60 billion) [in the budget estimates for 2004-05, that is.]
Since the UPA government has had very little time to really figure out ways to implement its various programmes the FM has earmarked Rs 10,000 crore (Rs 100 billion) for the Planning Commission to fund various programmes once they are finalised.
The government has increased the budgetary support to the plan from Rs 135,071 crore (Rs 1350.71 billion) last year to Rs 145,590 crore (Rs 1455.90 billion) this year.
The Antyodaya Anna Yojana which aims to provide food to the poor is to be widened to cover 20 million families from the 15 million in 2003-04.
While the provision for this has been included in the food subsidy of Rs 25,800 crore (Rs 258 billion) according to the finance minister.
However, it's worth keeping in mind that the overall food subsidy was already Rs 25,200 crore (Rs 252 billion) in 2003-04. In other words, Chidambaram plans to sharply prune food subsidies (or the theft in it) in the current year for other sections of the population.
A 2 per cent cess that will yield between Rs 4,000 crore (Rs 40 billion) and Rs 5,000 crore (Rs 50 billion) will be used to fund the extra commitments on education. Health coverage is to be increased through greater use of health insurance schemes.
The current Universal Health Insurance Scheme, the minister said, has covered only 11,408 poor families so far and he wishes to increase this to 1 million - for this, the government will spend Rs 40 crore (Rs 400 million) towards paying part of the premia.
The Accelerated Irrigation programme has been highlighted as an area of neglect - only 28 of the 178 projects identified have been completed - and the finance minister intends to allocate Rs 550 crore (Rs 5.50 billion) more for it.
Another Rs 500 crore (Rs 5 billion) extra is to be spent on rural housing. Other schemes, such as the one to re-energise 5,00,000 water bodies at a cost of Rs 500 crore, are to be paid for through existing programmes.
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