Akali Dal calls it positive, Congress anti-poor

Tribune News Service

Chandigarh, February 28

The Budget proposals for 2015-16, announced by Union Finance Minister Arun Jaitley, have evoked a mixed response from across the political spectrum.

While the ruling SAD-BJP alliance has hailed the proposals, especially the three projects sanctioned for Punjab, the Opposition has dubbed it as “pro-rich” and “anti-poor” and “anti-middle class”.

Deputy Chief Minister Sukhbir Singh Badal has said the Budget was positive, which would catapult growth and strengthen the nation’s economy. “The Union Finance Minister has put the focus back on agriculture and social services sector. Punjab has been given due consideration with an AIIMS, a post graduate institute of horticulture research and education and resources for development of Jallianwala Bagh,” he said.

Punjab Finance Minister Parminder Singh Dhindsa, too, praised the Budget, calling it growth-oriented. “The proposals to set up a bank for refinancing micro units will lead to more economic activity and job creation. The revised fiscal consolidation roadmap announced today is achievable, unlike in the UPA government, which was too ambitious. A state like Punjab, which has over 32 per cent Dalit population, will also benefit from the Mudra Bank,” he said.

State BJP president Kamal Sharma, too, has hailed the Budget. “It has a vision and showcases how the vision envisaged by the party for re-building India will be achieved,” he said.

On the other hand, Punjab Congress chief Partap Singh Bajwa assailed the budget as one in which “the common man had been completely ignored”. “Prime Minister Narendra Modi had been talking of improving the life of the common man. But there is no indication that the Budget will carry the country’s economy towards that direction. The government had earlier failed in arresting the price rise and one had expected that this inflation might be neutralised for the common man at least by raising the taxable income level to leave more money in the pocket of the common man,” he said.

Former Chief Minister Rajinder Kaur Bhattal slammed the Budget proposals, saying it was lackluster and directionless. “Narendra Modi had made enticing promises to the people before coming to power. He has disappointed them by presenting a Budget where the poor have been ignored and industrialists have been benefitted,” she said.

People’s Party of Punjab chief Manpreet Badal pointed out that the Union Finance Minister had said that decline in farm income and manufacturing sector were his biggest concerns. “Despite identifying the right problems, the Budget fails to offer any tangible solution. One would have expected some fiscal incentives and infrastructural up-gradation for the myriad small and medium-scale industry clusters that contribute to more than 50 per cent of India’s manufacturing export,” he said.

Manpreet said similarly, a clear cut path for promoting food processing industry and upgrading the supply chain infrastructure for agriculture produce would have gone a long way in making agriculture more remunerative. “The stark absence of these two measures is especially disconcerting for Punjab, where agriculture diversification has failed to take off because of the absence of an enabling infrastructure and various small-scale industry clusters are in a state of terminal decline,” he said.