'Few budget promises are kept by the government'

J Kumaran is all of 21 years old. Rather young to be really interested in a number crunching, apparently drab exercise like the Union Budget.

But the young commerce graduate from Chennai, who runs a shop in the Dharavi area of Mumbai, is well versed with the annual exercise and says: "The Budget is very important because it is a plan. And you cannot do anything without a plan."

"It (the Budget) tells you how much money (the government) has left after paying salaries to government staff and interest on loans, for infrastructure and social development."

Kumaran hopes the government will allot some funds for the Dharavi area, to build homes for the people (slum-dwellers) and better roads and flyovers. Living in Mumbai hasn't cut him off his roots in Chennai. He fervently hopes the government, through the Budget, will do something about the water problem in Chennai.

Yet his hopes struggle to beat his cynicism when he says: "The government promises a lot during the Budget, but few of these promises are kept. The government will forget most of the promises by next week." Thus Kumaran does not make any personal plans with the Budget in mind.

And if he were to become the nation's finance minister? Ah! He would concentrate on the backward areas in the country, both rural and urban. He feels that in India development has been in very selective and not evenly spread out. His priority fund allotment would be for drinking water.

-- A Ganesh Nadar

Photographs: Jewella C Miranda

Budget 2004-05: Complete Coverage

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