Published in Dwarka Express on 27.7.24

Union Budgets may come and go, but the common man always looks at the sky for water and his pocket for money. This goes on for long and will continue as long as the planet exists, it appears. While all budgets in general will be aimed at growth and development, we always look for the sustainability of the development proposals placed by the Government. The greener side of the budget appears to be not so green. Urbanisation is one while resilience in natural agriculture is another priority of the 9 priorities of the Government as pointed out in the budget report

Some of the green proposals

Finance Minister has underlined that one Crore farmers will be drawn into natural farming. To discourage manufacture of plastic goods, custom duty on plastic has been increased by 25%. Certain northern states like Uttarakhand, Assam, Sikkim and Himachal Predesh have received good mitigation schemes Rooftop solar scheme have been proposed for 1 Crore households which is expected to give 300 free units of electricity per month. A policy paper on clean energy transfer pathways is indicated in the budget with a focus on clean technology for carbon mitigation. The focus will be shifted from energy efficiency target to emission target. Govt will promote Sewage treatment, Solid waste mgt projects for 100 large cities.

Grey areas of green initiatives

1. Organic farming: While dealing with natural agriculture, we look for more impetus in terms of budget allocation to organic farming.
2. Plastics: To curb their imports of PVC flex banners, Basic Customs Duty (BCD) has been increased from 10% to 25%, but domestic manufacturing of single use plastic does not stop even after 2 years of the ban. Either the ban should be firmly enforced or the plastic industries should be drastically disincentivized. Our recent survey showed that still the street vendors are using the polythene bags.
3. Flood Mitigation: Regarding flood mitigation sops, some states like Tamil Nadu and West Bengal are ignored. We feel that the flood relief must be extended to all affected states impartially.
4. Deforestation: As per media reports, In the last five years, 95,724.99 ha of the forest land has been diverted for non-forestry use. Sustainable development must encompass a greening target to reach the global commitment of enhancing the present 24 % of forest to 33% in the next 5 years. This means there is a dire need for massive plantation but no incentive for green mission.
5. Urbanisation: The smart city initiative of 100 cities have been in cards for quite some time. But there is no perceptible moves barring a few focused redevelopment in a few towns. The exodus of rural population from villages migrating to the cities hoping to get better livelihood is never ending. Former President APJ Abdul Kalam’s dream for providing urban comforts in rural areas (PURA) seems to be completely forgotten. The mad rush to cities could have been stopped. One more glaring miss is allocation to Swacch Bharat Abhyaan, an initiative of PM Modi. The key issue in urban areas is mounting plastic trash. We are of the firm opinion that the focus should be on smart villages rather than smart cities (Picture courtesy: representative picture from internet)