Proposals not backed by funds: Preneet

Tribune News Service

New Delhi, July 9

Patiala MP Preneet Kaur on Tuesday said in the Lok Sabha that the Modi government had made announcements that were not backed by the funds allocations.

Participating in the discussion on Budget, Preneet expressed serious concern on the outlay on defence, more particularly on defence acquisitions. “There is a need for quick upgrade of the defence capabilities. The total outlay on defence capital outlays is just adjusted for inflation, means we are spending less than even last year even while the threat perception presented to the nation just a few months ago was an entirely different story,” she said.

She counted three budgets as path-breaking and said that all of them came during times of coalition governments. “The first is the historic budget of Dr Manmohan Singh in 1991 that changed India forever by dismantling avoidable controls and lowering of tariffs. Next is what is still known as the dream-budget presented by P Chidambaram in 1997 and lastly, in 2004, which made our country take huge strides to transform health, education and social justice,” the MP said, adding that all these were followed by long periods of high growth periods that were now acknowledged as the golden periods of Indian economy.

She said the expenditure on animal husbandry and dairying was lower than last year by about 11 per cent, this amid talk of doubling farmers’ income in three years.