Mr. Chairman, Sir, thank you very much for giving me this opportunity to participate in this debate.

Sir, while I rise to support the Budget, I recollect the great words of the Father of our Nation, Mahatma Gandhi. He said that Gram Swaraj will come not only by acquisition of authority by a few, but also by acquisition of capacity by all to resist the authority when it is abused. This UPA Government, under the guidance of Shrimati Sonia Gandhi, with the active support of the Left Front, and under the stewardship of Dr. Manmohan Singh, through the Budget presented by Shri Chidambaram, tried to address the major issues of how to build capacity, how to build infrastructure and sources of living for one and all in this country.

That is the reason why in this Budget and its earlier Budget, the UPA Government only spoke about Bharat Nirman.

The major requirements of the people of this country are electrification, rural road connectivity, telephone density, irrigation and so on. We allocated Rs. 12,000 crore for Bharat Nirman in the last year's Budget. That has been increased to Rs. 18,000 crore in this year's Budget. That is a 50 per cent increase over the last year. The UPA Government has identified eight flagship programmes for implementation, like elementary education, rural development, urban development, increase of irrigation facilities, ICDS, Mid-Day meal and National Rural Health Mission. These flagship programmes of the Government have been allotted Rs. 50,000 crore which is 42 per cent more than the allocation last year of Rs. 35,000 crore.

Coming to the issue of revenue, my friend Shri Sudhakara Reddy of CPI said that substantial measures were not being taken to increase the revenue. I asked him what exactly he meant. He said that we should increase the revenue to Rs. 1,30,000 crore. In this Budget the revenue collection has increased to Rs. 4,40,000 crore from the last year's collection of Rs. 3,70,000 crore. It is an increase of Rs. 70,000 crore in one year. The Centre's share alone is Rs. 4,00,000 crore. That happened in spite of reduction in customs duties, maintaining both corporate and individual tax rates, and excise duties being cut down. Inspite of all these, we have increased tax collection from Rs. 3,70,000 crore to Rs. 4,40,000 crore. So, this Government has taken many measures on the one hand to increase the tax net to bring in more people, to increase the revenue, and on the other hand to allocate more to social sectors.

We have seen a substantial increase in allocations for Bharat Nirman and eight other flagship programmes. In spite of all these things, we need to try and understand if that is enough for the villages in the country. The allocation in this year's Budget for Rural Development is Rs. 31,400 crore. We have more than 12 lakh villages in this country. When you divide the allocation by the number of villages, it comes to about Rs. 2.5 lakh for village. Is it enough to build infrastructure in villages?

Take the example of Sarva Shiksha Abhiyan. Allocation for Sarva Shiksha Abhiyan was increased year after year from Rs. 2,000 crore prior to 2004 to Rs. 4,400 crore. In the current year's Budget it has been increased to Rs. 10,040 crore. However, when you divide that allocation among 12 lakh habitations, it comes to less than a lakh per habitation. Would it be enough for a village? That means, it is going to take several years for building infrastructure in the villages under this Scheme. There are many schools in rural areas, tribal areas and backward areas. We need to build proper infrastructure there so that children can get proper education.

Budget for ICDS has been increased from Rs. 3,300 crore last year to Rs. 4,000 crore this year. Still, is that enough? Are the conditions favourable for children in villages to go to school and get proper education? I myself have visited many Anganwadi Kendras and saw the facilities available there. When you divide the allocation of Rs. 4,000 crore among all the villages, it comes to Rs. 30,000 per village out of which at least Rs. 20,000 goes for the salary of the caretakers there. That means, what is left is only Rs. 10,000 for the entire population of children there.

So, we need to try and see how we can increase all this. It is easy to say, like our friends from the Left are saying, "Why cannot we get more people into the tax net? Why cannot we increase the taxes?" There is a substantial amount of black money in the economy of the country. We have two economies today in the country - black and white. All of you understand what these black and white are.

The official value of the real estate transacted in this country is Rs. 3,00,000 crores. But the unofficial value of real estate is more than Rs. 6,00,000 lakh crores. That is, more than Rs. 6,00,000 crores is changing hands every year on account of only real estate. We have to bring this money into the net. It is not easy. But it will take a lot of time. It is very easy to say but when it comes to practice, there are many difficulties to face.

The most important thing is the administrative reforms. We need to bring in administrative reforms. Our Finance Minister used to say that it is not outlay, it is outcome, which is important. In the last two years, we increased the Budget by more than Rs. l lakh crores for the social programmes. What is more important is that these outlays have to be transformed into outcomes. To achieve that, we need to see as to how we would bring about better administrative reforms.

Here, I would like to remember my childhood days. When I was a 10-year old kid, I used to live in a small hut. I used to see my grandmother as to how she functioned. She was a good economist. I always used to say that my grandmother was a very good economist. She used to sell milk, butter milk. Not only that, I used to wonder as to how she used to sell even cow dung in order to earn money. I used to ask her as to why she sells all these things. She used to reply that we cannot waste anything. In this country, the most valuable thing is the human resource. Secondly, we should not waste a single minute of our time. If we take care of these two things and put them together in a proper time frame, definitely we can rise to any situation. I am sure, this Government would try to create such a situation. We have seen that in the last two years.

Prior to 2004, economy was derailed. There Bharat Nirman was temple nirman, places of worship nirman, and destruction of places of worship. They had a totally different focus. This Government brought everything back on track and on focus. Under this Government, we have only talking of gender budgeting. Their Government also talked of gender burning. But this Government not only talks of gender budgeting but has also allotted Rs. 29,000 crores. We have eight lakh Self-Help Groups in the country, who are lending Rs.4,800 crores. Andhra Pradesh alone contributes Rs. 1,500 crores in terms of Self-Help Groups for women. So, we need to see as to how we can bring about more women groups and try to bring in credit link to ensure that their produce is not only sold in India but also abroad. We need to have a market arm so that the produce of Self-Help Groups are marketed by an umbrella, not only in India but also all over the world. We need to take steps in this direction.

MR. CHAIRMAN (SHRI DEVENDRA PRASAD YADAV): Please conclude. SHRI L. RAJAGOPAL (VIJAYAWADA): I would take just one minute. I value time. I do not want to take much of the time of the House because as I stated time is the most important thing.

Apart from this, when it comes to agriculture, I would like to say that this Government has increased the credit to the agriculture sector from Rs. 1,41,000 crores to Rs. 1,71,000 crores. But I would like to inform the hon. Finance Minister that we need to correct one thing. We treat district cooperative society or the cooperative bank on par with any other commercial bank. We need to understand here that people have more faith in nationalised banks. When it comes to putting money in the cooperative society, they have lesser faith. We need to give more interest for the depositors. For that reason, I feel that we cannot treat these cooperative banks on par with any other commercial bank. I want the Finance Minister to take note of this situation and try to see as to how he can correct the same.

Finally, I would like to say that Shri Chidambaram by giving priority to outcome for outlays has created a more transparent system so that everybody could see as to what the performance is. Dr. Manmohan Singh talked about performance over promises. Shrimati Sonia Gandhi's perception is that not only human face is required, but human heart also is required. ... {Interruptions) Soniaji has voluntarily said that she does not want power. She chose people over power. She is the only person in this country who has chosen people over power. Let us not forget that. ... (Interruptions)

SHRI L. RAJAGOPAL (VIJAYAWADA): I am not for promotion. I was the first person who said that first time MPs do not require Ministership. I do not require power; I do not require Ministership. I came here voluntarily. I had been to Gujarat "in December 2002. I saw the condition in Gujarat. I saw the situation in Gujarat, the way the Government was functioning. ... (Interruptions)

SHRI L. RAJAGOPAL (VIJAYAWADA): People like me came to public life so that we could strengthen the hands of Shrimati Sonia Gandhi. I am very happy that this Government would talk about performance and development. They do not talk about building places of worship or destroying places of worship or burning women in the name of Sati, trying to build temples of Sati, trying to glorify the burning of women. Shrimati Sonia Gandhi has given a human heart to this Government.

Finally, I would like to say that if this Government functions like this, I am sure, this India, this Bharat, will definitely become a place of opportunities. (ends)