Shiromani Akali Dal (SAD) president Sukhbir Singh Badal on Tuesday said the Union Budget 2023 had failed farmers, rural, poor and youth besides failing to do anything to revive the agricultural and industrial sector in Punjab.
Reacting to the Union budget presented in Parliament by Union Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman, the SAD president said farmers were promised that their agriculture income would be doubled. “Far from doing anything to realise this goal, the government has not ensured government procurement for all food grains on minimum support price (MSP),” he said.
He said similarly, the Union government had failed to fully implement its promise to ensure pukka houses for all by 2022. “Youth have also not got 16 crore jobs as promised at the rate of two crore jobs per year,” he added.
Speaking about the Union budget vis-à-vis Punjab, Badal said farmers were disappointed that new funds had been earmarked for diversification of crops in the state. “This is necessary to tackle the problem of groundwater depletion. Similarly nothing was done for border farmers who are farming under adverse conditions,” he added.
Speaking about the government’s thrust on millets, Badal said this would succeed only if all millet crops were procured as per remunerative MSP.
The SAD chief said the Punjab industry was going through a lean phase and the state was witnessing migration of industries to other Dates. “It’s unfortunate that the Union government has not done anything to incentivise industry in Punjab. Earlier also Punjab lost out when hill states were given tax cuts. Mr Badal also said it was unfortunate that no institution or major project had been given to Punjab in the union budget,” he added.