Budget is pro-poor, pro-farmer, growth-oriented: Sonowal

Guwahati: Hailing the Union Budget for 2017-18, Assam chief minister Sarbananda Sonowal described it as “pro-poor, pro-farmer, welfare and growth-oriented” and said it had something for every section of the society.
Sonowal praised the budget provision of Rs. 10 lakh crore as credit to farmers with 60 days interest waiver and stated that the increase of fund in the tune of Rs. 40,000 crore to NABARD and dedicated micro irrigation fund with Rs 5,000 cr initial corpus for NABARD would greatly help the farm sector.
Sonowal also lauded the move to create dairy processing infrastructure fund initially with a corpus of Rs. 2000 cr and stated that the mini lab in Krishi Vigyan Kendras for soil testing would add momentum to issuance of soil cards.
“Besides, the Government target to pull one crore households out of poverty by 2019, 5 lakh farm ponds to be taken up under MGNREGAduring 2017-18, over Rs 3 lakh cr for rural India and using of space tech in a big way to plan MGNREGA works would help double farmers income,” the chief minister stated.
Referring to the allocating Rs. 19,000 cr for Pradhan Mantri Gram Sadak Yojana in 2017-18 to complete 1 crore houses for those without homes, the Chief Minister stated the same will immensely boost government’s aim of “Housing for all”.
Appreciating an allocation investment of Rs. 1,84,632 cr. for women and kids, nationwide scheme for pregnant women under which Rs. 6000 each will be transferred, structural transformation of regulator framework for medical education in India, Sonowal added.
Transforming 1.5 lakh health sub centres into health wellness centre, the chief minister said that the proposals would leave effective impact on health sector and reducing MMR and IMR in the country.
Meanwhile, opposition All India United Democratic Front (AIUDF) termed the Union budget indifferent towards the causes of backward Northeast in general and Assam in particular with the Union Finance Minister proposing no special measures for development of the region.
The All India United Democratic Front also pointed out that the Union Budget remained silent on much-needed expansion and improvement of rail services in Northeast and did not allocate any fund for the proposed AIIMS in Assam.