Amritsar MP Gurjeet Singh Aujla slams Centre for ignoring Punjab in Union Budget

Amritsar, July 24

Lok Sabha MP from the city Gurjeet Singh Aujla has slammed the Centre for ignoring Punjab in the Union Budget and doling out funds to poll-bound Bihar and Andhra Pradesh.

The Budget is silent over waiving of Rs 31,000 crore loan taken by Punjab to fight terrorism. The allocation to the education sector has come down from 4.7 per cent of the entire Budget to 2.8 per cent. Similarly, allocation of funds to the health sector has also been curtailed. Gurjeet Singh Aujla, Lok Sabha MP

He said the Budget was silent over waiving of Rs 31,000 crore loan taken by Punjab to fight terrorism. Comparing the Narendra Modi government’s 2024 Budget with that of the erstwhile Dr Manmohan Singh-led Congress government, he said allocation to the education sector had come down from 4.7 per cent of the entire Budget to 2.8 per cent. Similarly, allocation of funds to the health sector was also curtailed, said Aujla.

Thankfully, he said the government had now accepted that unemployment was rising in the country. So, it sanctioned funds to resolve the problem.

On the issue of farming, Aujla said the government once again ignored the MSP guarantee on crops. He said the government was spending Rs 31,000 for importing pulses and cereals and another 1.35 lakh crore on import of edible oil. However, when it comes to paying farmers, the government was shying away.

Aujla said the demands of AIIMS for Amritsar and a package for the border area industry remainded unmet. He demanded that the Cenral Government should establish industrial parks in big cities of Punjab.