Chandigarh, February 1 (press ki taquat bureau):
The Finance Minister, Harpal Cheema, expressed his disappointment with the Interim Budget presented by the BJP government at the Centre, stating that it was as disappointing as the budgets of the past nine years. He highlighted the fact that the people of the country have been waiting for “acche din” (good days) for nine years, but it seems that these days are still elusive. The Finance Minister had hoped that the budget would include measures to take the country forward, but unfortunately, it fell short of expectations. He also criticized the Centre for not releasing the pending dues of Punjab, amounting to Rs 1,800 crore, which he believed was unjust and showed a discriminatory attitude towards the state. Additionally, he emphasized the importance of the agricultural sector in Punjab and the continuous demands of farmers for a guarantee of the Minimum Support Price (MSP) on all crops from the Central Government. However, the budget did not address these concerns, leaving the farmers disappointed.
The youth were left disappointed by this Budget as well. The BJP had gained power by making a promise to create two crore jobs annually, but instead of fulfilling this promise, they resorted to empty rhetoric and introduced schemes like the Agniveer scheme that did not effectively address the issue of unemployment. In reality, the BJP government was nothing more than a government of false promises and deception. They manipulated numbers and statistics to create an illusion of progress in terms of employment and the economy, ultimately deceiving the people with their false claims.
It was pointed out that the government was painting a false picture of the impoverished population. Shockingly, even today, around 80 crore people in the country were living below the poverty line, highlighting the urgent need for the government to provide foodgrains to such a large number of people. These figures clearly indicated that poverty in the country was on the rise. The truth about the Modi government’s economic policies was that the number of poor individuals was increasing day by day, while the wealth of the wealthy individuals close to the Prime Minister was continuously growing. The BJP claimed to champion the cause of the poor, but in reality, it was a government that favored the rich and capitalists, neglecting the needs of the underprivileged.
