Budget directionless, retrogressive, anti-development & inflationary: Congress
Wednesday, 24 July 2024 | PNS | DEHRADUN
Terming the budget presented by the Finance minister Nirmala Sitharaman in the parliament on Tuesday as directionless, retrogressive, anti-development and inflationary, the Uttarakhand Congress has said that the budget lacks financial management. The Pradesh Congress Committee (PCC) president Karan Mahara said that the Union government has opened the strings of its purse only for Bihar and Andhra Pradesh while neglecting other States of the country. He said that the Finance minister has only engaged in rhetoric and jugglery of data and has tried to provide benefits only to the selected industrialists in the budget.
Mahara claimed that the budgetary provisions made by Sitharaman will not increase employment opportunities and the economy of the country will not be able to touch the double digit rate of economic development. He said that the government under Prime Minister Narendra Modi keeps talking about doubling the income of the farmers but no provision for this has been made in the budget.
The PCC president said that the FM has made announcements to set up new hospitals and airports but no provision for existing hospitals and airports, which are in bad condition, has been made. He said that Uttarakhand has again been neglected in the budget.
Mahara said that the budget has hit the interests of the middle class and salaried. He said that earlier there was no tax up to Rs seven lakh per year but now five percent tax has been levied on the Rs 5 -7 lakh income range. He added that the union government has left Uttarakhand empty handed and there is no provision to meet natural disasters.
The chief spokeswoman of Uttarakhand Congress, Garima Dasauni said that the people of Uttarakhand were hoping that the State will either get status of special State or will receive green bonus in lieu of the environmental services offered by it but they were disappointed. She said that the budget was not allotted for the Song dam and the rail projects the State was demanding.
