THE employment guarantee scheme has been one of those government interventions in our country which have been most beneficial to the people. As per last year's revised estimates, the government had sanctioned Rs 61,084 crore for this scheme. But the NDA-II government has allocated only Rs 60,000 crore for the scheme in this year's budget – a reduction of Rs 1,084 crore when compared to the previous budget. Even though the scheme is supposed to provide 100 days of employment per worker, the average days of employment per worker so far is just 46 days. The perspective underlying Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman's first budget is clear from such large cuts.

The Union Budget 2019-20 does not address the real issues of the people or the needs of the country. The budget has displayed severe neglect towards Kerala in all sectors, which becomes evident when we look at some of the key sectors related to Kerala. For example, coir is a traditional industry in Kerala. The allocation for the Coir Board in this year's budget is Rs 1 crore compared to Rs 3 crore in the last revised budget estimates. Allocation for the National Bamboo Mission has been reduced from Rs 300 crore to Rs 150 crore. Allocation for the Rubber Board was Rs 172.22 crore last year, while it is Rs 170 crore this year. Allocation for the Cashew Export Promotion Council of India was Rs 4 crore in the Union Budget 2018-19, while now it is a meagre Rs 1 crore.

CENTRE IGNORED ALL OUR REQUESTS

FOR AID TO REBUILD KERALA

Kerala was hit badly by a massive deluge last year. One of the most major demands of Kerala before the centre was to allow the state to borrow beyond existing limits for the post-flood rebuilding of the state. Not only did the centre refuse to accept the demand, it has also turned a blind eye towards Kerala's demands for assistance in the efforts to rejuvenate the state. Even the Sushil Kumar Modi Committee's proposal that states affected by natural disasters should be allowed to draw more loans has not been considered in the case of Kerala.

Kerala had asked for assistance for its rubber farmers. Raising the minimum support price of rubber to Rs 200 is vital even for the survival of the farmers. The centre has not only rejected the demand for central government's budgetary support, but has refused to provide even a modicum of relief to the rubber farmers. The cut in allocation to the Rubber Board is an example of this. The Coconut Board and the Spices Board have also been refused support. The budget allocation for the Tea Board which was Rs 160.2 crore last year has been cut to Rs 150 crore this year.

The budget, which pushes the policies of liberalisation and globalisation more intensely, proposes to sell public sector units in order to collect an amount of Rs 1.05 lakh crore within a year. While the budget offers numerous schemes for the corporates, it chose to cause hardship to the employment guarantee scheme workers who find it tough to earn their daily bread. The budget completely neglects the agriculture sector. It has not paid any attention to promoting agricultural products, providing farm loan waiver, or ensuring adequate support prices for agricultural crops. The budget ignores social security programmes, while seeking to hike petrol and diesel prices, which will in turn fuel massive inflation.

Just like public sector equity sales, the concept of social stock exchange is meant to commercialise social security schemes. The general approach of the budget is against all the states. The budget immensely dilutes the federal approach of sharing the centre's revenue with the states. It also tries to financially squeeze the states.

Kerala has for long been trying to set up an Ayurveda Institute with international standards. Not even a penny has been set aside for the institute, which aims at the preservation and promotion of our great therapeutic heritage and indigenous medicines.

Kerala has been demanding an AIIMS in the state for quite a while. The state government promised to acquire 200 acres of land in Kozhikode when the centre refused to consider the state's request to set up a medical institute similar to AIIMS. Though the state government expressed such willingness, the centre has responded with neglect. There is complete silence about this issue in the union budget.

Waterways are one of the alternative ways of solving the transportation problems in Kerala. Much of the work in this regard, including that of the National Waterways, is progressing in the state. Yet, the centre, which has announced the Jal Jeevan Mission has not declared anything for the improvement of inland waterways in Kerala. The state has repeatedly demanded for a West Coast Waterway to be announced in the budget. That too has not been considered.

NO ATTEMPT TO SOLVE CORE ISSUES

The neglect towards Kerala with regard to railways continues as usual. Kerala had asked for funds and permission to double the South-North railway line, but the budget is silent about it. We demanded that the Chennai-Bangalore industrial corridor be extended to Kochi via Coimbatore. The budget has not responded to that at all. The budget allocation for the Cochin Shipyard has been cut, from Rs 660 crores last year to Rs 495 crores. Allocation for the Cochin Port Trust has been decreased from Rs 67 crore to Rs 46 crore. Kerala's demand to include the Malabar Cancer Centre in the central government's flagship National Health Fund has not been considered.

The list of instances of neglect and discrimination towards Kerala in various sectors is really long. The fact is that the budget, which does not address the core issues that the country is facing, such as stunted growth, unemployment, agrarian distress, industrial stagnation, and stagnation in production, also treats Kerala with utter disregard.

The budget does not even have financial proposals to implement the promises made in the BJP manifesto. The budget, which would lead to a further rise in inflation, is detrimental to the country's interests. The budget seeks to appease corporates, and opens up all the sectors of the country to global economic giants.

Kerala faces a peculiar situation of not being able to utilise central schemes as much as other states. This is because of the progress we have already made. Kerala is neglected while more backward states get assistance. Kerala has been consistently demanding that the uniform norms that the centre has set for Kerala and other states should be changed. But the demand was not considered. The centre's attitude of denying Kerala its rightful share continues.

Kerala is the best-performing state in the country in terms of health. Central assistance is necessary to safeguard Kerala's achievements in this regard and to address the newer generation of problems. But the central budget shows complete disregard to the health sector. The budget seeks to take away the rights and powers of the state governments and to make them completely dependent on the centre.

In effect, the central government has imposed a heavy burden on Kerala through the new budget proposals. This is condemnable and needs to be rectified.