Atmanirbhar India? Well, residents don’t agree

Aakanksha N Bhardwaj

Tribune News Service

Jalandhar, February 1

‘Atmanirbhar India’ — ye naara badhiya hai, par hai kuch nahee, says Ravinder Dhir, president, Veopar Sena, after the Union Budget was presented by Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman on Monday.

Sarcastic memes and comments attacking the Union Budget were doing rounds on social media the entire day. Most of the residents felt no big talks would do any good to the common man.

Dhir said: “There has been a long pending demand to decrease the GST slab on sports goods. But nothing has been done. Umeed hi nahee hai ab, sab baatein hain (There is no hope now, only empty talks),” he said, adding that the cottage industry was dying and the government was hardly bothered.

Yashika Sharma, who has taught in one of the leading colleges, said nothing was being done to tackle the grave and serious problem of unemployment. “I have seen students getting worried about their future and getting depressed because of this (unemployment). So, the thing which should be a priority has taken a backseat,” she said.

She said another announcement that one won’t be able to seek tax redemption on the interest on Provident Fund if one contributes Rs2.5 lakh every year, was a major setback for the salaried class.

“This is such a disappointment. The salaried class will suffer a lot,” she said.

Gursharan Singh, an industrialist, said the thing that was shocking was that there was no mention of MSMEs. “Only we know how we have survived during the pandemic and otherwise also the condition of the industry is not good at all. So, the government should have thought about the bruising industry. The MSME industry is so unhappy with the Budget.

He said there was nothing for a common citizen. “We are paying taxes to the government and this is what we get in return,” he said.

Sanjivan Dadhwal, a retired headmaster from a government school, however, expressed some satisfaction. He said the Budget might benefit farmers. “Apart from that, there was no change in the Income Tax slab, but I believe there was no need for it as changes were already made last year,” he said.