India News | Disappointing, Has Nothing for Poor, Farmers: Cong MLAs on Haryana Budget
Get latest articles and stories on India at LatestLY. Congress MLAs on Monday slammed Haryana's budget 2023-24, saying it is "totally disappointing" and there is nothing in it for the poor and farmers.
Chandigarh, Mar 20 (PTI) Congress MLAs on Monday slammed Haryana's budget 2023-24, saying it is "totally disappointing" and there is nothing in it for the poor and farmers.
During a discussion on the budget in the Haryana Assembly, the opposition party's legislators termed it a "jugglery of figures".
On February 23, Chief Minister Manohar Lal Khattar, who also holds the finance portfolio, announced a Rs 1,83,950 crore budget for 2023-24, an increase of 11.6 per cent over the revised estimate of Rs 1,64,808 crore.
He proposed no fresh tax, decided to hike the social security pension to Rs 2,750 per month and announced financial support for women entrepreneurs, among other things.
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Congress MLA Geeta Bhukkal dubbed the budget "totally disappointing".
"The BJP talks about Sabka Saath, Sabka Vikas, but Jhajjar, from where four Congress MLAs come, is being discriminated against in development works," she charged.
Bhukkal, a former education minister, claimed 36 Aarohi Model Schools opened in backward areas during the tenure of the erstwhile Congress government have been shut down.
Targeting the government over the law and order situation in Haryana, the Jhajjar MLA said, "It has been said in the Punjab Vidhan Sabha that Haryana has become a safe haven for criminals."
Senior Congress leader Kiran Choudhary termed the budget "disappointing" and said there is nothing in it for the poor, farmers and other sections.
"This budget is a jugglery of figures," she said.
BJP's Adampur MLA Bhavya Bishnoi, however, said the budget will take the state further on the path of growth.
The budget is committed to equitable development of both rural and urban areas, he said.
Ruling Jannayak Janta Party (JJP) MLA Ishwar Singh said the Parivar Pehchan Patra (PPP) scheme is a good initiative but it has some anomalies which need to be rectified.
Sometimes common service centres do not enter correct figures while linking annual income, pension and ration card data of beneficiaries under the PPP, he said.
The PPP is an e-governance scheme to promote "paperless" and "faceless" delivery of services to citizens.
Singh also said that a 2008 scheme for giving 100 square yard plots to the poor should be resumed and sought to know why it was discontinued.
On this, Congress members, who have been accusing the Khattar government of closing the scheme started by the erstwhile party's dispensation, thumped their desks.
During the discussion, Singh referred to a question he posed to Development and Panchayat Minister Devender Singh Babli during Question Hour about the details of the amount released for development work under various schemes for Scheduled Castes (SC) under the component plan.
Babli, who is also a JJP MLA, had an exchange with Singh over the issue.
Another JJP MLA, Jogi Ram Sihag, said every year there is an increase in budget allocations and suggested that there should be a discussion on how last year's budget was spent.
"Shouldn't there be a discussion on previous year's budget and where it was spent," he asked.
On the e-tendering issue, which is witnessing opposition from several sarpanches, Sihag said the government has been saying that it will check corruption and bring transparency.
He said he was of the opinion that corruption can be checked by acting against corrupt officials and the government should trust elected panchayats.
BJP MLA Krishan Middha called for a law to punish those using the word 'refugee' to refer to those who came to India from Pakistan at the time of the Partition.
"A law should be made which provides for punishment for anyone using words like refugees or Pakistanis for them," he said.
(The above story is verified and authored by Press Trust of India (PTI) staff. PTI, India’s premier news agency, employs more than 400 journalists and 500 stringers to cover almost every district and small town in India.. The views appearing in the above post do not reflect the opinions of LatestLY)