The All-India Nabard Employees' Association has voiced concern over what it called as 'pernicious provisions' in the Union Budget for 2014-15. Rana Mitra, Vice-President of the Association, said it was regrettable that expenditure under the ‘sensitive’ social sector was cut down by nearly ₹2 lakh crore from the previous year to ₹4.84 lakh crore. He also pointed out to the reduction in allotment for agriculture by nearly ₹7,250 crore and in rural development by a whopping ₹53,356 crore from 2013-14. Women and child welfare too saw a contraction in allocation to only 0.1 per cent of the total budget proposal from 1.1 per cent. “There is no increase in allocation in MGNREGA or Indira AwasYojna; rather in real terms, it has declined,” Mitra said.

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