Reacting to the Union Budget of 2022-23, Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) Punjab President and Member of Parliament (MP) Bhagwant Mann on Tuesday said the Centre government was so focused on their ‘corporate friends’ that they completely neglected common people and middle class of the country.
“No special package for Punjab or the farmers of our country is a proof of Bharatiya Janata Party government’s vindictiveness against them,” he said.
Mann also took a dig at the Union finance minister’s announcement to create 60 lakh jobs, Mann said how will the Centre government provide these jobs since they have already sold major government sectors to private players.
The AAP leader said the Union government has again ignored Punjab’s long-standing demand for a rail link between Rajpura and Mohali which would have also weakened the transport mafia in Punjab.
He said the Centre government has proposed developments in the railway sector under the PPP model that means now they want to give reins of this sector to their corporate friends too.
Mann said the budget was so focused on benefitting the big corporate houses of India that finance minister Nirmala Sitharaman did not even address the issue of inflation, setbacks that the education sector has been facing due to Covid-19 pandemic, farmers or unemployment.
“Modi government is constantly selling government sectors of India, how will they provide jobs? The BJP government has no plans or roadmap to provide employment, that’s why the number was reduced from two crore jobs to 60 lakh jobs,” the AAP leader said.
Mann said the Union finance minister has announced the Gati Shakti programme which includes the expansion of roads, railways, ports, airports, mass transport, waterways and logistics infrastructure. but she failed to mention that her government has given the steering of each one of these seven sectors to the private players.
“This Union budget was a big disappointment for the common people of our country and the middle-class felt left out since the government has failed them badly,” he said.