Hailing the state’s Budget 2018-19, Punjab Chief Minister (CM) Amarinder Singh on Saturday said it would put the state on the path of high growth even as the Opposition termed the same as “anti farmer, anti Dalit, anti youth and anti-employees”.
Dismissing as totally unfounded and misleading the statements of Shiromani Akali Dal-Bharatiya Janata Party (SAD-BJP) on the budget, the CM said the budget presented by Finance minister Manpreet Badal is a milestone one with its focus on multi-sectoral growth.
Speaking to reporters, Amarinder said this budget would lead the state back on the path of growth and prosperity to bring it out of the vicious cycle of the fiscal mess into which the previous government had plunged it.
The CM challenged the Akalis and the BJP to list even one tangible success they had achieved in terms of development and prosperity of the state during their decade-long misrule.
The current budget had taken due care of all sectors of state, be agriculture, industry, health, education, employment generation or, above all, the welfare of disadvantaged sections of the society, said Amarinder.
The CM said that this budget would prove to be a milestone to achieve the target of fiscal consolidation as mandated by the 14th Finance Commission for all the states.
SAD leader and former Punjab CM, Parkash Singh Badal, however, dismissed the budget as “directionless, meaningless and devoid of vision.” “It documents the government’s betrayla of the farmers, the dalits and the poor, the youth, the employees and the helpless senior citizens,” he said.
The SAD president, Sukhbir Singh Badal, however, said the resource mobilisation figures of Rs 9,000 Crore show that the government will break the back of Punjabis with a burden of fresh taxes of Rs 9,000 Crore. Badal said that the budget is a huge fraudulent exercise in fudging of figures.
SAD legislator and former finance minister, Parminder Singh Dhindsa said that the budgetary estimates and salaries bill clearly reveal that that this government has no intention or plans to provide any jobs to the youth of Punjab.
Sukhbir said the budget is an admission that the government has totally backed out of all the promises made by it to the people before the elections, including promise of Rs 90,000 Crore debt waiver to the farmers. The government has also betrayed the employees of the state as there is no mention in the budget of the Pay Commission.