Prime Minister Atal Behari Vajpayee on Wednesday announced a 100 billion rupee (2.1 billion dollar) scheme to generate employment in India's poverty-stricken rural belt.
In his annual Independence Day address to the nation from the ramparts of the Red Fort in New Delhi, Vajpayee acknowledged that the economic reform programme launched in 1991 had failed to reach India's impoverished millions.
"We will take all the necessary steps to see this is corrected," Vajpayee said, unveiling a "Complete Rural Employment" scheme, which will receive 100 billion rupees of funding and generate one billion man days of employment.
The scheme will provide adequate jobs to the unemployed in rural India who will be paid through grain or cash, Vajpayee said, adding that 50,000 tonnes of grain would be allocated for the purpose.
Coining the new initiative as "pro-poor, pro-village and pro-employment," Vajpayee said he would also set up a "Rapid Action Force" to monitor its implementation.
"While launching these new initiatives, we are aware... that the system is inadequate in the task of implementing them in an effective and time bound manner... Therefore, the coming year would be observed as the 'Year of Implementation,'" the prime minister said.
The prime minister also sought to allay concerns over the current slowdown in the national economy.
"It is true that India's economy is going through a slowdown. But this is a temporary phenomenon. This is a global phenomenon and not limited to India alone... but there is stability and so there should be no concerns," he said.
"Prices are stable, inflation is under control, our foreign exchange reserves have reached new records and we have a comfortable food stock."
Referring to "recent crises" in the financial markets, Vajpayee said reforms would be introduced to safeguard the interests of small investors, while greater efforts would be made to combat corruption at all levels.
He assured the people the government would arrest the economic slowdown and check unrestricted imports under the World Trade Organisation (WTO) regime.
He said in spite of a three-fold increase in population since independence, the level of poverty had been reduced to about 26 per cent from 36 per cent a decade ago.
"Abject poverty is on its way out," Vajpayee said. |
