Policy and Financing Framework for Livelihoods
15
of the state-centre financial relationship
proposed by the 14th Finance Commission
had been utilised for a thorough overhaul
of the development schemes supported
by the central government. Twenty four
planned schemes have been discontinued
from coverage by the Centre for revenue
expenditure. A large number of signifi-
cant and flagship schemes from the past
formed a part of this list such as the RKVY,
NRLM, National Urban LivelihoodsMission
(NULM), Indira Awaas Yojana (IAY),
cattle development schemes, Mission for
Integrated Development of Horticulture
(MIDH), National LivestockMission (NLM),
National Mission for Sustainable Agriculture
(NMSA), Dairy Vikas Abhiyan, Veterinary
Service & Animal Health Programme,
National Afforestation Programme (NAP),
etc. All these schemes are now expected to
be taken over by the states and funded out
of increased devolution of tax revenuesmade
available by the central government. As part
of its revamp, the Centre has also discon-
tinued some schemes from the current year
onwards. Some of these schemes were found
useful in the past for supporting certain areas
that impacted livelihoods. BackwardRegions
Table 2.1:
Sector-wise central plan outlays
Central plan outlay
(in
`
crore)
Sectors–central plan
2013–14
(Actual)
2014–15
(BE)
2014–15
(RE)
2015–16
(BE)
Variation between
BE 2015–16 and
BE 2014–15
1
2
3
4
5
Agriculture and allied activities
17,788
11,531
10,199
11,657
126
Rural Development
51,757
3,082
1,877
3,131
49
Irrigation and flood control
441
1,797
896
772
–1,025
Energy
182,388
166,275
154,878
167,342
1,067
Industry and Minerals
33,433
40,209
39,397
43,113
2,904
Transport
103,959
116,202
106,242
193,417
77,215
Communications
16,209
13,009
13,027
12,032
–977
Science, technology and Environment
13,535
18,792
14,821
19,023
231
General Economic Services
26,064
26,318
17,303
20,333
–5,985
Social Services
150,736
79,411
64,284
81,003
1,592
General Services
7,263
7,906
3,887
26,559
18,653
Grand Total
603,573
434,532
426,811
578,382
93,850
Source:
Budget documents of Ministry of Finance, GoI.
Grant Fund (BRGF), National Mission on
Food Processing (NMFP) and Rajiv Gandhi
Panchayat Sashaktikaran Abhiyan (RGPSA)
as also the National e-Governance Plan
(NeGP), are some of the important pro-
grammes which potentially had an impact
on livelihoods. Their discontinuation might
impair current livelihoods on the ground as
well as impact future options for the youth.
The Model School Scheme that aimed at
setting up 6,000 model schools across the
country has also been dropped, despite
reduced access to education among the
poorer households even in those areas where
stoppage of the scheme is likely to have an
adverse impact.
One of the significant (and somewhat
disturbing) features of the Budget is reduc-
tion in the Central Plan Outlay for the
rural sector. In 2009–10, the total actual
expenditure of Ministry of Agriculture was
of the order of
`
158.56 billion (Table 2.1).
It increased to
`
266.23 billion in the year
2014–15. The Budget for 2015–16 estimates
Ministry of Agriculture’s budget at
`
249.10
billion and this includes the extra alloca-
tions made during the year for setting up a
national agricultural market. However, the
