41.Despite the expansion of banking network in the country, there are still some areas that remain under-banked or unbanked.A sub-committee of State Level Bankers Committee ( SLB C) will identify such areas and formulate an action plan for providing banking facilities to all these areas in the next 3 years.I propose to set aside Rs.100 crore during the current year as one-time grant-in-aid to ensure provision of at least one centre/Point of Sales (POS) for banking services in each of the unbanked blocks in the country.
42.The Government has established Competition Commission of India, an autonomous regulatory body to promote and sustain competition in markets, protect interests of consumers and to prevent practices having adverse effect on competition. An Appellate body headed by a retired judge of the Supreme Court has also been constituted.
43.The benefits of competition should now come to more sectors and their users and consumers. Now is the time for us to work on these aspects to eliminate supply bottlenecks, enhance productivity, reduce costs and improve quality of goods and services supplied to consumers.
Investment environment
44.Private sector investment has been affected by the global macro economic conditions. Our Government is committed to creating a facilitating environment in which a competitive private sector can thrive and play its rightful role in nation's economic development. India 's high growth of 8.5% per annum from 2004 to 2008 was fuelled in very large part by private investment. I look forward to working closely with industry and our vibrant entrepreneurial community to address their outstanding concerns.
TOWARDS INCLUSIVE DEVELOPMENT
45.Madam Speaker, the UPA government has gone for a paradigm shift for making the development process more inclusive. It involves creating entitlements backed by legal guarantee to provide basic amenities and opportunities for livelihood to vulnerable sections. 'Aam Admi' is now the focus of all our programmes and schemes.
National Rural Employment Guarantee Scheme (NREGS).
46.(i)It is widely acknowledged that the National Rural Employment Guarantee Act, (NREGA) first implemented in February 2006, has been a magnificent success. During 2008-09, NREGA provided employment opportunities for more than 4.47 crore households as against 3.39 crore households covered in 2007-08. We are committed to providing a real wage of Rs.100 a day as an entitlement under the NREGA. To increase the productivity of assets and resources under NREGA, convergence with other schemes relating to agriculture, forests, water resources, land resources and rural roads is being initiated. In the first stage, a total of 115 pilot districts have been selected for such convergence.Details of these measures and convergence guidelines will be announced by my colleague, the Minister of Rural Development. I propose an allocation of Rs.39,100 crore for the year 2009-10 for NREGA which marks an increase of 144% over 2008-09 Budget Estimates.
National Food Security Act (NFSA)
(ii)I am happy to announce that the work on National Food Security Act has begun in right earnest. This will ensure that every family living below the poverty line in rural or urban areas will be entitled by law to 25 kilos of rice or wheat per month at Rs.3 a kilo. The Government proposes to put the draft Food Security Bill on the website of the Department of Food and Public Distribution for public debate and consultations very soon.
Bharat Nirman
(iii)Bharat Nirman with its six schemes is an important initiative for bridging the gap between the rural and urban areas and improving the quality of life of people, particularly the poor, in the rural areas. I propose to step up the allocations for Bharat Nirman by 45 per cent in 2009-10 over the BE of 2008-09. The Pradhan Mantri Gram Sadak Yojana (PMGSY) is one of the most successful programmes under Bharat Nirman.I propose to step up the allocation for this programme by 59% over BE 2008-09 to Rs.12,000 crore.I also propose to allocate Rs.7,000 crore to Rajiv Gandhi Grameen Viduytikaran Yojana (RGGVY) which represents a 27 per cent increase over 2008-09 (BE).
(iv)The allocation for the Indira Awaas Yojana ( IAY) is proposed to be increased by 63 per cent to Rs.8,800 crore in Budget Estimates 2009-10.To broaden the pace of rural housing, I propose to allocate, from the shortfall in the priority sector lending of commercial banks, a sum of Rs.2,000 crore for Rural Housing Fund in the National Housing Bank (NHB).This will boost the resource base of NHB for their refinance operations in rural housing sector.
Pradhan Mantri Adarsh Gram Yojana (PMAGY)
(v)There are about 44,000 villages in which the population of Scheduled castes is above 50 per cent.A new scheme called Pradhan Mantri Adarsh Gram Yojana (PMAGY) is being launched this year on a pilot basis, for the integrated development of 1000 such villages. I propose an allocation of Rs.100 crore for this scheme.Each village would be able to avail gap funding of Rs.10 lakh over and above the allocations under Rural Development and Poverty Alleviation Schemes.On successful implementation of the pilot phase, the Yojana would be extended in coming years.
Empowerment of Weaker Sections
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