Citizen Ideas reflected in the Union Budget 2016-17
The Ministry of Finance invited citizen suggestions for the Union budget 2016 on MyGov through a public discussion. Several of these responses have been reflected in the budget presented by Finance Minister Shri Arun Jaitley on Monday, 29th February 2016.
MyGov acknowledges all the citizens who participated in this discussion. Some of prominent ideas are as follows:-
- Suggestion 1: Urban Amenities in Rural Areas
“Just like Smart Cities, allocate some fund for developing Rural Clusters and provide them urban facilities (Electricity through Solar Panel, irrigation through Solar Pumps etc.) by involving the Sarpanch directly.” – Manish Shankaram, Hazaribag
Government Budget Proposal
“300 Rurban Clusters will be developed under the Shyama Prasad Mukherjee Rurban Mission launched by the Honourable Prime Minister recently. These Clusters will incubate growth centres in rural areas by providing infrastructure amenities and market access for the farmers.”
- Suggestion 2 : Expanding the Scope of Organic Farming
“Allocation of fund for agricultural research on sustainable farming, organic agriculture, large scale production of organic manures, soil management techniques, to cope with increasing demand, and scope of exporting organic farm produce globally” – Dolagobinda Panda
Government Budget Proposal
“At least 5 lakh farm ponds and dug wells in rain fed areas and 10 lakh compost pits for production of organic manure will be taken up by making productive use of the allocations under MGNREGA.”
- Suggestion 3: Welfare Programme for Animal Husbandry
“Introduce animal insurance policy similar to that for people. This policy will make income for the government, provide employment for animal doctors & insurance staff and benefit the animal owners” – Nirav Sheth
Government Budget Proposal
“ Pashudhan Sanjivani , an animal wellness programme and provision of Animal Health Cards (‘Nakul Swasthya Patra’)”
- Suggestion 4: Introducing Special Agricultural Cess
“Introduce special Agricultural Cess, similar to the Educational Cess, on products like plastic bags, tyres, etc., and use this amount for providing agricultural subsidies to farmers and encouraging corporate farming.”- Sabari
Government Budget Proposal
“Special focus has been given to ensure adequate and timely flow of credit to the farmers.”
- Suggestion 5: Direct Benefit Transfer for Fertilizers
“Provide Direct Benefit Transfers (DBT) on Fertilizers”- Mukesh Bhaiji, Bangalore
Government Budget Proposal
“We propose to introduce DBT on pilot basis for fertilizer in a few districts across the country, with a view to improving the quality of service delivery to farmers.”
- Suggestion 6: Creating Separate Irrigation Fund
“Agriculture sector must be reformed and more funds for irrigation must be provided to free agriculture from monsoon dependency ”- Sunil Raj, Thiruvananthapuram
Government Budget Proposal
“A dedicated Long Term Irrigation Fund will be created in NABARD with an initial corpus of about `20,000 crore.”
- Suggestion 7: Introducing “Gram Swarajya” Scheme
“Announce Gandhi Grama Swarajya scheme (GGSS): Under this scheme, every district in every village needs to locally produce clothes for children, provide textile machinery training in every village and promote indigenously produced clothes. Villagers can also sell these garments in the cities.”- Vijay Narayana Chilaka, Himayathnagar
Government Budget Proposal
“Panchayat Raj Institutions need to develop governance capabilities to deliver on the Sustainable Development Goals. It is, therefore, proposed to launch a new restructured scheme, namely, Rashtriya Gram Swaraj Abhiyan, for which 655 crore is being set apart in 2016-17.”
- Suggestion 8: Initiating Open Online Courses
“Establish an all India open university which takes nominal fees or awards free courses to everyone. Furthermore, there can be an online repository of videos of quality courses with an online self-assessment system.”- Brijesh Ghodasara and Saurabh Kumar Verma
Government Budget Proposal
“Entrepreneurship Education and Training will be provided in 2200 colleges, 300 schools, and 500 Government ITIs and 50 Vocational Training Centres through Massive Open Online Courses.”
- Suggestion 9: Price Stabilisation Fund for Pulses
“Set up a ‘Permanent Price Stabilisation Fund’ to check unreasonable hikes in prices of essential commodities, including pulses, foodgrains, vegetables, etc. Weekly monitoring can be done to control hoarding activities”- Rajkaran Singh Bhatti, Chandigarh
Government Budget Proposal
“Government has approved creation of buffer stock of pulses through procurement at Minimum Support Price and at market price through Price Stabilisation Fund.”
- Suggestion 10: Ek Bharat Shreshtha Bharat
“Ek Bharat Shreshtha Bharat programme formulated through the citizen ideas on MyGov finds mention in the Union Budget 2016-17.”
Government Budget Proposal
“Ek Bharat Shreshtha Bharat” programme will be launched to link States and Districts in an annual programme that connects people through exchanges in areas of language, trade, culture, travel and tourism.”