Chandigarh, Mar 8 (PTI) Former Haryana Chief Minister Bhupinder Singh Hooda on Tuesday described the budget presented by the BJP-led government in the state as a "jugglery of words".

"The budget is a jugglery of words. The government is following the policy of 'run ahead, leave behind' as the budget first shows inflated numbers but these are later revised and reduced,” Hooda, who is the Leader of the Opposition in Haryana assembly, said.

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Hooda claimed the government has cut economic progress and infrastructure budget by 3 per cent “even at a time of record unemployment”.

“Not only this, the budget for education has also been reduced as compared to last year. The amount of debt on the state has increased to about Rs 2.5 lakh crore which means that the expenditure on loan repayment has increased in this budget as compared to last year,” he said in a statement.

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“It seems that the government is not interested in fulfilling the announcements made in the budget."

"For example, four new medical colleges have been announced by the government and the BJP has been continuously announcing the establishment of medical colleges in every district but no medical college was built by this government in the last seven-and-a-half-years,” he said.

Haryana Chief Minister Manohar Lal Khattar, who also holds the finance portfolio, presented the budget estimates for 2022-23 in the state assembly here on Tuesday.

On the state's debt, senior Congress leader Randeep Singh Surjewala tweeted, from 1966 when Haryana was formed till 2014, the state's total debt was Rs 70,931 crore which increased 215 per cent during the last seven years to Rs 2.23 lakh crore.

Indian National Lok Dal leader Abhay Singh Chautala said while the debt was mounting, development was not visible from the money borrowed.

Chautala said, "Each year, a provision of Rs 100 crore is earmarked in the budget for Sutlej Yamuna Link canal, but no provision has been made in the budget for 2022-23."

Hooda said in the last budget, the government announced to make film cities in Gurugram and Pinjore but this promise has remained unfulfilled.

“An announcement was also made to make Industrial Model Township in Sohna, but far from making a new IMT, the government could not even develop the IMTs created during the Congress government's tenure,” Hooda said.

The former chief minister said the same is the case with the promise to build 4,000 new play schools which are nowhere to be seen on the ground.

"The government had announced to distribute tablets to children from classes 8 to 12 but this has not been done even after one year. The promise of new recruitments in the health department is still hanging in the balance and about 10,000 posts are lying vacant in the health department even today. Similarly, about 50,000 posts are lying vacant in the education department,” Hooda said.

Hooda further accused the state government of cheating farmers.

“For the past several years, the BJP has been making promises of doubling the income of farmers by 2022. In the last budget speech also, the commitment of doubling the income was expressed by the chief minister. But there is no mention of it anywhere in today's budget,” he said.

"Similarly, the promise of giving Rs 7,000 per acre to farmers who grow crops other than paddy also proved to be a 'jumla'. The promise to build 1,000 farmer ATMs also remains unfulfilled,” he said.

The Congress leader said farmers were given the facility of livestock insurance for just one hundred rupees during the Congress government but the BJP government called off that plan.

"Today, farmers have to pay Rs 3,000 to 4,000 for private insurance,” he said.

He said employees of the state government have also been left disappointed with this budget.

"Their biggest demand was to implement the old pension scheme but employees of Haryana will not be able to get the benefit like the employees of Rajasthan,” he said.

The Congress is in power in Rajasthan.

Haryana has the highest unemployment rate in the country today, he claimed.

“Despite this, no provision was made in the budget which could help in employment generation,” he said.

Despite constant demand, no financial help was given to small and medium scale traders and industries to emerge from the economic impact of the Covid pandemic and recession, 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)