Chandigarh, March 16- Haryana Education and Social Justice and Empowerment Minister, Mrs Geeta Bhukkal has welcomed the Union Budget for the year 2012-13.
In a statement issued here today, she appreciated the proposal to have an increase of 18 per cent to Rs.37,113 crore for Scheduled Castes Sub Plan during 2012-13. She also appreciated other proposals like hike in widow pension and disability pension from Rs. 200 to Rs. 300 per month and doubling of grant on death of primary bread winner of a BPL family in the age group 18-64 years to Rs. 20,000, rolling out a multi-sectoral programme to address maternal and child malnutrition in selected 200 high burdened districts during 2012-13. She said that an allocation of Rs.15,850 crore made for ICDS scheme which is an increase of 58 per cent and Rs.11,937 crore for National Programme of Mid-Day Meals in schools for the year 2012-13 would improve the health of children. An allocation of Rs.750 crore for Rajiv Gandhi Scheme for Empowerment of Adolescent Girls, SABLA, would help the adolescent girls, he added.
She was all praise for the initiatives like increase in allocation by 21.7 per cent for Right to Education-Sarva Shiksha Abhiyan to Rs.25,555 crore and by 29 per cent for Rashtriya Madhyamik ShikshaAbhiyan to Rs. 3,124 crore and proposal to set up a Credit Guarantee Fund to ensure better flow of funds to students. The proposal to provide Rs.200 crore to enlarge the corpus to Rs.300 crore of the Women’s SHG’s Development Fund was also praise worthy, she added.