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Union budget anti-Punjab, directionless: Bhagwant Mann
Punjab Chief Minister Bhagwant Mann on Wednesday slammed the Union government for presenting an “anti-Punjab, anti-people, anti-farmer and directionless union budget.”
CHANDIGARH Punjab Chief Minister Bhagwant Mann on Wednesday slammed the Union government for presenting an “anti-Punjab, anti-people, anti-farmer and directionless union budget.”
“It is shameful that going by its myopic mindset the Union government has completely ignored the state thereby bringing a huge disrespect to countless sacrifices made by the brave and hard working Punjabis in pre and post independent era”, said the chief minister in a statement issued here today.
The chief minister said that he is peeved to learn that all the genuine demands of Punjab have been blatantly ignored and state has figured nowhere in the Union budget. He said that after Republic Day, during which state’s tableau was kept out of parade, this is second deliberate attempt of the BJP led center government to undermine contribution of Punjab. Bhagwant Mann said that he fails to understand why the BJP is meting out such step motherly treatment with Punjab.
The CM said that being a border state they had demanded ₹ 1,000 crore for modernisation of Border Security Force and state police from center. He said that this fund is necessary to combat the smuggling of drugs and weapons from across the border especially through the hi-tech drones. However, Mann said that Union government gave cold shoulder to this demand by not allocating budget for it thereby completely jeopardising security in border state.
Likewise, the CM said that during pre-budget meetings they had flagged off necessity to start Vande Mataram trains from Amritsar and Bathinda to Delhi for facilitating the people. But, he said that this demand has been completely ignored along with the idea of connecting all the five Takhts of Sikhs through Rail route. Bhagwant Mann said that this religious circuit would have given boost to tourism in state besides facilitating the commuters.
The Chief Minister also lamented that the budget has exposed the anti-farmers stance of the Modi government. He said that this is “the last budget of incumbent Modi government” but despite of tall claims nothing has been done to double the income of the farmers. Bhagwant Mann said that even the government shied away from giving remunerative MSP on crops to farmers which is very unfortunate.
Mann said that they had been pursuing case of ₹ 1,500 financial assistance by center to farmers along with matching grant by state for solving the problem of paddy menace. However, he said that nothing has been done in this regard by the Union government. Bhagwant Mann said that though the Union finance minister has vaguely announced that new nursing colleges will be opened but for it also no timeline has been fixed.
Mann said that though Schedule Tribes have been offered various facilities in budgets but the Schedule Caste and Backward class fraternity have been completely ignored. He said that it is totally a scripted paper budget which is both directionless and retrogressive. Bhagwant Mann said that the budget lacks vision for the common man which is very unfortunate. The chief minister cautioned the Union government to “stop playing with fire by ignoring the state on key issues.”
