In an election year, finance minister A K Walia gives attention to social welfare, hikes subsidies for students and pensions for senior citizens and widows; says development should have a human face TIMES NEWS NETWORK Underlining that the key focus area of this budget is to help "people in society who the government needs to take care of', finance minister A K Walia in his Budget speech emphasised on "development with a human face'. Walia lived up to his comment made last year when the opposition benches labelled his budget populist. The minister had responded to the "populist' remark with a smile saying, "wait for next year'. Budget 2008-09 is thus full of sops for the urban poor and the lower middle class. There is also good news for senior citizens, widows and the disabled. The government has decided to enhance pension for senior citizens and widows from Rs 600 to Rs 1000 per month, starting April 1. Last year, the government had enhanced the pension from Rs 400 to Rs 600. For the disabled, the government has decided to remove the eligibility condition of employment exchange registration for two years from the scheme of unemployment allowance. The allowance too has been enchanced from Rs 600 to Rs 1,000. Many more have been added to the list of beneficiaries of social welfare entitlements. The government has decided to increase the income limit to allow many more families to become eligible for benefits under various schemes to Rs 60,000 per annum. Meanwhile, after much delay, the Delhi government has claimed that it is gearing up to launch Ladli, its ambitious scheme for promotion of sex ratio, institutional birth and education of the girl child. The scheme will take off from April 1 and a budgetary allocation of Rs 72 crore has been made for Ladli for 2008-09. Under the scheme, on birth of a girl child in a hospital or nursing home in Delhi, a sum of Rs 11,000 will be deposited in her name. Further a sum of Rs 5000 will be added to the amount each time the girl takes admission in Class I, VI and IX. Another Rs 5,000 will be deposited when she passes out of Class X, and on admission to Class XII. The amount would be redeemed as Rs 1 lakh when the girl turns 18. All parents whose income is upto Rs 1 lakh per annum are eligible for the scheme. In an attempt to pacify anganwadi workers who often remain unpaid for months together, the budget promises a salary hike. Under the Integrated Child Development Scheme, the government has decided to increase the state share to each worker from Rs 500 per month to Rs 1000, taking the total emoluments of a worker to Rs 2500 starting April 1. For the helper, it is an increase from Rs 200 to Rs 500, bringing up the consolidated salary to Rs 1250. Starting April 1, the government will implement the Rashtriya Swasthya Bima Yojna to provide health insurance cover to below poverty line families in the unorganised sector. A provision of Rs 8.80 crore has been made for this. The beneficiary will have to pay Rs 30 for one time registration and in turn can avail cashless treatment in selected hospitals upto Rs 30,000 per annum. The government has also decided to increase its contribution to Rs 100 per person under the Janshree Bima Yojna for those below poverty line. The "Aam Aadmi Bima Yojna' launched last year in October will be implemented to provide life and disability insurance coverage to rural landless households. toireporter@timesgroup.com