Rs 4 lakh crore for a Clean India with more than Rs 50,000 crore each year for Panchayats

Admin   |   04 October, 2014   |   1037   |   3980

These are numbers being bandied about by the Modi government. Are they real? Where will the money come from?

Nitin Gadkari, the union minister for Rural Development and Drinking Water and Sanitation on Wednesday announced a grant of Rs20 lakh for each village in the country every year until 2 October 2019. Considering there are about 2.65 lakh gram panchayats in the country (2002 estimate), this translates into an additional expenditure of over Rs53,000 crore every year or about Rs2.65 lakh crore for next five years on the exchequer. This is in addition to Rs1.34 lakh crore, Gadkari's Ministry is spending for building toilets across the country. Both put together is about Rs4 lakh crore. The question is can India or better, can taxpayers afford this additional burden and where will the money come from?