This is the time for contemplation. The global pandemic Covid-19 has changed the dynamics of development. The superpowers of the world are battling Covid-19 today, many seem to be failing, and the Covid-19 control strategy of many countries has proved to be a failure. On such an occasion, the Prime Minister Narendra Modi, with his foresight and determination, has brought the nation to the forefront of the world today in fight against this pandemic.
As a result of his timely decision on lockdown, today, despite being a densely populated country, the rate of corona infection in India is lower than that of many other countries. The concern of Prime Minister Narendra Modi is not strictly limited to mitigating the suffering of the people of the motherland rising out of Covid-19. His decisions reflect solution to the situations arising in the country as a result of the lockdown.
On one side, there is the battle against spread of corona and on the other hand, there are efforts to resolve unemployment resulting from lockdown. In this difficult time, it is the vision of the Prime Minster to make India self-reliant – Atmanirbhar.
His policy interventions are meant to move India towards a New India which is self reliant and is at the forefront of economic development of the world in general and India in particular. The core of self-reliant India lies in rural development. This will prove to be the biggest step of Prime Minister Narendra Modi to empower India in the global circumstances arising after corona. Agriculture and village based economy has become the backbone of India. The concept is to build a self-sufficient empowered India through small and medium industries.
During the lockdown, the Government has made itself a powerful medium of employment through the MNREGA in the villages. Prime Minister Modi is known for taking bold decisions when situation so demands.
This is reflected in the decision of the Government of India to make additional provision of Rs 40,000 Crore for MGNREGA during the current financial year raising the outlay to Rs 101500 Crore which is more than thrice the allocation that was there in 2013-14 during the UPA regime. More than Rs 29,500 Cr has already been released to the States and UTs A total of 6.44 crore MNREGA workers have been offered jobs in the country so far and more than 54.71 crore man-days work have been created.
The number of job offered to MGNREGA workers in the month of May 2020 has witnessed sharp increase of more than 70 percent as compared to the number of jobs offered in May 2019.
For the current Financial year, In MGNREGA, the average wage has been increased by Rs 20 per day reflecting an increase of 11 per cent over the previous year. An ex-gratia payment of Rs 1000 in two equal instalment of Rs 500 has been transferred in to the accounts of 2.82 crore senior citizens, widows and disabled persons entailing an expenditure of Rs 2815 Crore. Efforts are on to ensure that every poor gets a roof of his own. In its efforts to achieve the objective of providing Housing for All by 2022, a total of 2.21 crore houses has been sanctioned under the Pradhan Mantri Awas Yojana, out of which about 1.04 crore houses have already been completed. During the lockdown period, efforts are on to complete around 48 lakh house for whose construction, third / fourth instalment has been released.
Under Pradhan Mantri Gram Sadak Yojana Phase-III, out of targeted road length of 1.25 lakh km for construction, 13,900 km of roads have been sanctioned . The proposals for approval of about 17 thousand kilometres roads are in the final stage of approval.
(The writer is Union Minister for Agriculture and Farmers Welfare)