Himachal Pradesh Congress and CPM on Tuesday criticised the BJP led Centre government for neglect of the state in the Union Budget and termed it as “directionless”.
State Congress chief Kuldeep Singh Rathore termed the budget as “anti-people” and said the BJP led Centre government has ignored core issues of rising inflation and unemployment.
“The budget doesn’t have any steps to improve upon the dwindling economy of the country and India won’t get any desirable results in achieving desired results in economic growth,” he added.
Mandi MP and the wife of former chief minister Virbhadra Singh, Pratibha Singh said the interests of the Himachal had been ignored in the budget and the state was expecting an announcement on expansion of rail network in the state by Union Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman.
But it didn’t happen and there is no mention of the proposed international airport in Mandi in the budget, she said, adding that the budget will only increase unemployment as well as inflation in the country.
CPM state secretariat member and Himachal Kisan Sabha chief Kuldeep Singh Tanwar said the budget reflects Prime Minister Narendra Modi led BJP government’s vengeance on farmers’ protest.
“The Union Budget has totally ignored the genuine demands of the farmers and seems like an act of revenge on the successful united farmers’ movement. No relief for farmers and agricultural labour has been announced. Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman has sought to create hype that Rs 2.37 lakh crore is set aside for procurement of paddy and wheat in 2022-23.
But, in fact this is lesser than the allocation of Rs 2.48 lakh crore made last year and the beneficiaries will also be drastically reduced from to 1.63 crores only while beneficiaries last year were 1.97 crore; an exclusion of 34 lakh farmers while we have been demanding expansion to all crops and widening of the reach.” he said.