Hummingbird News Desk
KOLKATA, 1 FEB: Lashing out at the Centre, chief minister Mamata Banerjee criticised today’s budget has nothing for common people who are getting crushed by unemployment and inflation. She claimed it as a Pegasus spin budget.
“Budget has zero for common people, who are getting crushed by unemployment and inflation. Government is lost in big words signifying nothing – A Pegasus Spin Budget”, she tweeted.
Amit Mitra, principal chief advisor to the chief minister Mamata Banerjee and the finance department said, “There is no direction of financial growth in this union budget. There is nothing for the poor and middle class. The income tax structure remains unchanged. The Centre’s budget is either a hoax or a lack of goodwill.”
The amount allocated for 100 days work has been reduced in this year’s budget, which is a terrible thing, Mr Mitra said.
“The allocation has reduced from 98,000 crore to 73,000 crore. Generally no one will notice this,” he added.
“Just as chief minister Mamata Banerjee said, there is nothing for common people in this budget. There is no allocation for social security schemes. Nothing for senior citizens either. The biggest thing is that, there is no solution for middle class employees in the budget. 1.20 crore middle class people lost their jobs in lockdown. What is allocated for them in the budget?” he asked.
“What is allocated in the budget for the families of those who lost their lives due to COVID? There is nothing,” Mr Mitra lashed out at the Centre.
Roads and ports make no sense if people remain uneducated and ill! Union Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman’s Budget promises fancy commitment, but in reality, there’s nothing for the common man, alleged Trinamul Congress Rajya Sabha MP and party’s national spokesperson Derek O’Brien.
The Budget fails to provide a concrete roadmap for the implementation of the Centre’s lofty scheme amidst the rising unemployment owing to the Covid pandemic, he said.
The average Indian middle class, reeling under the impact of Covid-19, pay cuts and “back breaking” inflation, had been hoping for relief from the Finance Minister, but to no avail.
Dr Amit Mitra, the principal chief advisor to the West Bengal CM, said the Budget lacked any direction to address the growing unemployment in the country.
For the farmers of the country, the ‘much-awaited’ Budget turned out to be yet another unimaginative, uninspiring and unimplementable prospect.
The government has lowered monetary allocation towards subsidy in the Budget. While fertilizer subsidy is down from Rs 1.34 lakh crore this year to Rs 79,530 crore in the next financial year; food subsidy from Rs 4.2 lakh crore has come down to Rs 2.4 lakh crore, Mr Mitra alleged.
With no talks of MSP for the country’s ailing farm sector, the government instead is focusing on cosmetic development by talking about natural farming along the Ganga corridor alleged Mr Mitra.
AITC Rajya Sabha MP Derek O’Brien stated, “Diamonds are this government’s best friend. For the rest — farmers, middle class, daily earners, unemployed — the Budget seems more like PM (Does Not) Care.”
The push for digitisation in sectors such as agriculture, farming, and finance comes at a time when the government is not even willing to have a discussion on the ‘Pegasus snooping row’, where it has been accused of surveillance. The Aadhaar-Voter ID linkage has already put the privacy of millions in danger. Increased digitisation without safety measures will only create more room for surveillance, slammed Mr Mitra.
Meanwhile, according to the Centre for Monitoring Indian Economy, India has around 53 million unemployed people as of December 2021. The Union Finance Minister, meanwhile, claimed that production-linked incentive schemes will create 60 lakh jobs in the next five years. One can only wonder how this will improve economy, asked Mr Mitra.
Tags: #UnionBudget #PegasusSpinBudget #MamataBanerjee #NirmalaSitharaman #AmitMitra
