The Union Finance Minister Shri
Arun Jaitley said that social sector groups can play an
important role in taking positive advantage of demographic
dividend. Shri Jaitley said that we may have been
implementing the various social sector programmes but there
is need to upgrade them and their delivery mechanisms and
also provide adequate interventions within the fiscal space
available. He said that there is need to ensure that the
benefits of these programmes reach the poor and marginalized
and other weaker sections of the society. The Finance
Minister was making the Opening Remarks while holding his
second Pre-Budget Consultation with the representatives of
the Social Sector related Groups here today.
Along with the Finance Minister,
the meeting was attended by Ms. Nirmala Sitharaman, Minister
of State for Finance and Corporate Affairs, Shri Ratan P.
Watal, Expenditure Secretary, Shri Rajiv Takru, Revenue
Secretary, Shri Shankar Aggarwal, Secretary, Ministry of
Women & Child Development, Shri Lov Verma, Secretary,
Department of Health and Family Welfare, Shri Sudhir
Bhargava, Secretary, Ministry of Social Justice and
Empowerment, Shri R. Bhattacharya, Secretary, Department of
School Education and Literacy, Smt. Gauri Kumar, Secretary,
Ministry of Labour and Employment, representative from the
Ministry of Rural Development and senior officers of the
Ministry of Finance among others.
Various suggestions were
received during the meeting from the representatives of the
different Social Sector Groups. Major suggestions include
higher budgetary allocation in General Budget 2014-215 for
2.68 crore disabled people in the country, simplification of
procedures for seeking grants and their timely release,
helping in making NGOs especially welfare NGOs
self-sustainable and financially viable by giving certain
tax concessions and allowing creation of corpus fund among
others. Other suggestions include higher allocation to
promote use of renewable energy especially solar and wind
energy, focus on making a roadmap for replacing kerosene and
diesel by renewable energy wherever possible and creation of
National Green Energy Fund among others.
Other suggestions include
adoption and implementation of the National Competition
Policy, enactment and implementation of the Public
Procurement Act and the National Procurement Policy,
enactment and implementation of an omnibus Financial
Consumer Protection Act and fixing of Fiscal Management
Practices by establishment of Parliamentary Budget Office,
adoption of international best practices in budgetary
planning and reduction of non-merit subsidies among others.
Other suggestions made during
the aforesaid meeting include focus on financial inclusion
by setting-up of a Special Purpose Vehicle (SPV) by Public
Sector Banks, universalize the pension for all the poor,
extension of Rashtriya Swasthaya Beema Yojana(RSBY) to all
the districts in the country, setting-up of old age home in
each district of the country for destitute and vulnerable
old age people, inculcation of value education in our system
, setting-up of National Nutrition Mission and creation of a
Dalit Fund to encourage any innovative activity undertaken
by a SC/ST person.
Representatives of different
social sector groups who participated in today’s meeting
included Shri Binju Abraham, PRADAN, , Shri Sandeep Pandey,
ASHA, Shri M.P. Vasimalai, DHAN, Ms. Vinatha M. Reddy,
GRAMEEN KOOTA, Shri Ashok Khosla, Development Alternatives
Group, Shri D.R. Mehta, JAIPUR FOOT, Mr. Mathew Cherian,
HELPAGE, Dr. Rukmani Banerjee, PRATHAM, Shri H. Mahapatra,
SA-DHAN, Shri Ajay Mehta, Sewa Mandir, Shri Ashok Bharti,
NACDOR, Shri Pradeep S. Mehta, CUTS and Shri Samit Aich,
Greenpeace among others.
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