Flaws in Govt's Agri policy
Source: The Sangai Express

Imphal, May 24 2013 : At a time when the Government of India is putting in serious effort to develop agriculture and allied sectors by pumping in additional fund, the State Government is currently pain-ting a contrasting picture.

According to an official source, the total yearly budgetary allocation for agriculture and allied sectors do not even reach 4 percent of the total budget amount since fiscal year 2009-10 .

Although, the Centre has been concentrating more on agriculture to bring overall development of the country, the State has been giving more thrust to Engineering Departments, the source added.

Agriculture and allied sectors comprise of agriculture, horticulture, fisheries, veterinary, co-operation, forest and sericulture.

These sectors which connect more with me-dium to acutely poor people is still not able to work at its best towards enhancement of financial condition of the people of the State.

It is estimated that around 70 percent of the people of the country are dependent on agriculture and allied sectors.

Over the past few years, the State Govt has been not only allocating little amount to the sector in the annual budget, but also shying away from contributing its share in the Central sponsored schemes.

As such, hope for bringing development through Central Government schemes is also becoming bleak year after year.

The source further said that Manipur has not only become a State which allocates least fund to the sector but also get minimum fund from the Centre in the entire North East region.

Although, the sector must get an estimated fund of around Rs 28.1 crore from the Centre through Rashtriya Krishi Vigyan Yojana (RKVY) during this fiscal year, it is still not known whether Manipur would get the entire amount if the State Government fails to contribute its share, the source added.

Saying that Manipur got Rs 52 crore from the Centre through RKVSY in the last fiscal year, the source further said that the amount has been reduced to Rs 28.1 crore this time as the State Government could not contribute its share in the last financial year.

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