Cong calls Budget unreal, window dressing

Cong calls Budget unreal, window dressing

Vijay Deo Jha | Ranchi

Rubbishing the State Government’s claim of a good Budget, the Congress on Saturday criticised the budgetary proposals.

The State Congress gave the Budget three different names: Unreal, window dressing and a document of inflated estimates. The party criticised the Government for not making special provisions to meet the famine-like conditions in Jharkhand. “It can not be called a real Budget. It is not going to benefit the people. The Govern-ment has no vision for the development of Jharkhand,” senior Congress leader Radhakrishna Kishore said at a Press conference.

He slammed Finance Minister Raghuwar Das claims to present downsized non-planned Budget only to cloak fiscal deficit and revenue loss. Kishore said that the budget is based on inflated claim of the government to collect revenues in the next financial year 2010-11. “But the records of the past budgets and the revenue colleted therein suggests that the successive governments have failed to meet the target,” Kishore cautioned.

Kishore also disputed the claim of the Finance Minister Raghuwar Das that the government was serious about rural economy. The state government has made a provision of Rs 260 crore for agriculture this time in comparison with the last budget where the amount was Rs 200 crore.

“While the Government was barely able to spend merely 40 per cent of the total budgetary allocation in the past budget…now on the basis of additional Rs 60 crore the government has been claiming to achieve five percent growth rate in the agricultural product.”

He also ridiculed Das’ explore feasibility of metro rail project in Jharkhand.

“While the successive Governments have not been able to start ring road project in Ranchi, Das has been selling a false dream,” Kishore said.

Stating that the announcements made by Das, including opening of 300 new schools and generating 80,000 employment opportunities in Jharkhand, Kishore doubted that announcements would hardly graduate beyond the Budget speech.

Kishore was flanked by senior party leader Sukhdeo Bhagat who termed it a false claim of
the Finance Minister. Bhagat said that the Government has only been making tall claims, “despite 5,000 posts of teachers lying vacant”. Over the proposed mass employments in the current financial year, he wondered: “Government announced but made no provision in the budget.”

Bhagat also criticised the Budget for not making any provision for the university and college teachers for their revised salary under the Sixth Pay Commission report.