Rajasthan CM Ashok Gehlot to present a separate agriculture budget

Chief Minister Ashok Gehlot, who also holds the finance portfolio, will present a separate agriculture budget in the state Assembly on Wednesday. The Chief Minister who would present the state budget would separately present a budget for agriculture and farmers welfare. This agriculture budget is being prepared largely to benefit the farmers and increase agricultural production with an aim to enhance the income of the farmers.

The agriculture minister and officials of the agriculture and finance department held dialogues with the farmers and livestock keepers and also dairy union officials to formulate the agriculture budget.

Rajasthan is the second state after Tamil Nadu which is also preparing a separate state budget for agriculture. The proposed budget which would be presented along with the state annual budget will focus on ensuring security to the farmers from natural calamities like drought and poor rainfall. The state is an arid zone that often suffers because of a weak monsoon or inadequate rainfall. The farmers of the state depend on a favourable monsoon for irrigating their field because the state has not many perennial rivers.

This budget will focus at uplifting farmers, state of the art warehouses, cold storages and better agriculture marketing avenues.

The Rajasthan chief minister would try and present a budget that would focus on farmer’s welfare, small entrepreneurs and health schemes for all.

Gehlot is expected to announce a scheme to waive off Rs 2500 crore loans that the farmers have taken from the nationalised and commercial banks. This would ensure that the nationalised and commercial banks do not auction the land of the farmers for non-payment of loans.

The state government has already waived the loans taken by the farmers from the various cooperative banks. The loan waivers of the nationalised and commercial banks will benefit two to three lakh farmers. It is likely that the budget will raise provision for farmers from Rs 1.5 thousand crore provision to Rs 18,500 crores which is considered a hefty increase. This would enable the state government to disburse agriculture loans to the tune of Rs 20,000 crores, the highest ever. The state’s 29.77 per cent GDP comes from agriculture and the main agricultural produce are mustard, millet ( bajra) and guar. The state is a leader in oil seed production and also milk yield and the state government is focusing on giving it a boost.

Chief Minister Gehlot has been focusing on the development of the MSME sector with an aim to provide employment to the youth. It is expected that the state budget will provide an MSME Credit card scheme. Under this credit card scheme, small entrepreneurs would be able to get Rs two lakh to Rs 10 lakh credit limit. The budget is likely to announce a special fixed-rate electricity tariff for the MSME sectors.

The Chief Minister is likely to announce setting up five more medical colleges and also upgrading the various primary health centres in the villages.

The Congress government’s budget would benefit the state government employees under the welfare health schemes. Under this scheme, the outdoor treatment limit which is fixed at Rs 20,000 will be increased to Rs 30,000. Thus eight lakh state government employees would be benefitted under this.

Recently, the 15-month long face-off between the Raj Bhawan and the Ashok Gehlot government ended with the Governor, Kalraj Mishra finally agreeing to send the Bill relating to the auction of the agricultural land. After the governor consented to sending the bill relating to auction of the farmer’s land, the state government started the mandatory process for the amendment of Rajasthan Agriculture Credit Operation (Removal of Difficulties) to enable him to send it to the President for the President’s approval.

The Bill is called RODA Act and the state government had amended the proviso to section 60 (1) (b) of the Code of Civil Procedure (CPC) and it was amended on November 2, 2020. Following the amendment of the Bill attachment and auction of land up to five acres belonging to the farmers were prevented. After the assent to the Bill by the President, banks including the commercial banks would not be able to attach or auction the mortgaged land for recovery of its loans.

The Ashok Gehlot government in November 2020 had introduced the amendment of the RODA ACT after the parliament passed the Farm Bills that was opposed by the farmers forcing the Modi government to repeal the Act. The Gehlot government in November 2020 passed a resolution opposing the Farm Bills in the state Assembly. The state government introduced a Bill of amendment relating to the Act passed by the parliament relating to the criminal proceedings relating to the attachment or auction of the land of 2008. Under this Bill passed by the parliament, the states were given the rights to suitably amend the Bill to suit the state. On the strength of this provision, the state tabled the Bill of the amendment which was passed by the Assembly.

The Bill relates to stopping the auction of mortgaged land up to five acres by the lending bank.

The state government would fulfil its commitment made under the manifesto for providing employment in the education department. Apart from this, Gehlot is likely to announce the employment of 5000 constables, 1500 new jobs in the Ayush department, 1100 jobs in the urban development and housing sector and about 900 other jobs in various departments under the urban development department.