All India Kisan Sabha has come out against the budget, saying that the government has totally ignored the genuine demands of farmers and reduced the allocations for procurement, food, fertiliser and MGNREGA.

“It seems like an act of revenge on the successful united farmers’ movement”, Ashok Dhawale, president and Hannan Mollah, general secretary said. There is no relief for farmers and their demands for assured procurement at remunerative prices and loan waiver have met with callous indifference, they added.

Cut in procurement, subsidy

The total allocation was ₹4,74,750.47 crore in 2021-22 (Revised Estimates) which has fallen to ₹3,70,303 crore. The share of rural development has also down from 5.59 per cent to 5.23 per cent. Moreover, there is a cut in allocations for procurement, MGNREGA, crop insurance, food and fertiliser subsidy, they added.

The Finance Minister has sought to create hype that ₹2.37 lakh crore is set aside for procurement of paddy and wheat in 2022-23. In fact, this is lesser than the allocation of ₹2.48 lakh crore made last year. The beneficiaries will also be drastically reduced to 1.63 crore while, the figure last year were 1.97 crore, an exclusion of 34 lakh farmers, while there is a demand for expansion to all crops and widening of the reach.

The allocation for procurement to the FCI and under decentralised procurement scheme has been reduced by 28 per cent. Reduction in allocation and inflation will altogether result in a significant decline in procurement in 2022-23. The allocation of funds for fertiliser subsidy has been reduced by 25 per cent.

The allocation for Pradhan Mantri Fasal Bima Yojana which was ₹16,000 crore in the last budget has been reduced to ₹15,500 crore. The earlier claim that 14 crore farmer households would benefit has been scaled down to 12.5 crore. While ₹6,000 each would require ₹75,000 crore, only ₹68,000 crore has been allotted. The allocation for crop husbandry has been cut by ₹26,000 crore and allocation for food storage and warehousing by ₹84,000 crore.

‘Drop in MGNREGA allocation’

When job opportunities have shrunk in the pandemic times, the allocation for MGNREGA has been actually reduced. While the Revised Estimates of 2021-22 was ₹98,000 crore, the Budget has only allocated ₹73,000 crore. A recent study had estimated that for ensuring 100 days/household under MGNREGA would require about ₹2.64 lakh crore including for clearing arrears of around ₹21,000 crore. “Clearly, the poor agricultural labourers are not a priority for the Government”, AIKS leaders said.

Related Topics