Former chief minister of Uttarakhand and general secretary of All India Congress Committee (AICC) Harish Rawat has said that the union budget 2021-22 would further deepen the despair prevailing in rural India. Terming the budget as inflationary he said that it would increase the prices. Rawat said that the finance minister Nirmala Sitharaman has made no serious effort to increase consumption and industrial production. He added that the middle class was hoping to get some money in its pocket but Sitharaman gave no relief in tax to them. Rawat said that few capitalists would surely benefit from the budget but it would further increase the existing gap between the poor and rich. Accusing the BJP government for selling the Public Sector Undertakings (PSU) to its industrialist friends, Rawat said that the general public has got a big disappointment from the budget. He added that core issues have been neglected in the budget and many of its provisions are contradictory. “In the economic survey it was mentioned that the private hospitals are more costly and the quality of service provided there is of low quality and based on it everyone was hoping that focus on government health sector would be made in the budget but it didn’t happen as more emphasis is given on private sector,’’ he said.
Rawat said that the budget would not give a boost to exports and the farming sector got no incentives from the government. He said that the budget has nothing for the people of Uttarakhand. “ There is no mention of green bonus, no talk of railway infrastructure and no provision of the Union government sharing the financial load of the state,’’ he added.
Tuesday, 02 February 2021 | PNS | Dehradun
