Himachal Pradesh Chief Minister Thakur Sukhvinder Singh Sukhu said here on Thursday that the Union Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman while presenting the Interim Union Budget has failed to meet the expectation of the people of the country.

“The budget is merely a financial web to trap the people in its luring promises. The focus of the budget is to woo the voters rather than to strengthen economy,” said Sukhu.

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He further said, “Once again, the interests of Himachal Pradesh have been ignored in the Budget. Not even a single penny has been provided despite knowing well that the state has suffered huge loss of lives and property during the recent disaster the state suffered,”

“There was no mention of expansion of the rail network for the state. And also there is also no mention of any rapid mass transit system for hilly states like Himachal, where metro rail cannot be started,” he added.

Though green and solar energy have been mentioned in the budget speech, there is no clear roadmap as to how the green and the solar energy initiatives will be achieved, said Sukhu.

“No additional tax relief has been given to the middle class. The budget has no mention of controlling inflation,” said Sukhu, adding that the prices of LPG were already high and there has been no reduction in the prices of diesel and petrol to provide relief to the common people.

There was nothing for the salaried, the poor and the middle class, only the capitalists and industrialists have been kept in mind in this budget, he said, alleging that the budget has exposed the anti-poor face of the Union government.

The chief minister said besides collecting Goods and Services Tax (GST) of around Rs. 1.8 lakh crore, no additional concession has been given in Income Tax and other taxes. The budget has sidelined the Health Sector as well, the chief minister pointed out.