India News | Hooda Says Haryana Budget Mere 'event Management', 'disappointing'

Chandigarh, Mar 21 (PTI) Senior Congress leader Bhupinder Singh Hooda on Monday described Haryana's budget for 2022-23 as mere "event management" and "disappointing".

Participating in the discussion on budget estimates for 2022-23, the Leader of Opposition said while the government claims it has presented a tax-free budget, prices of all essential commodities are beyond the reach of common people due to inflation, which is taxation without legislation.

Also Read | Anti-Human Trafficking Unit of Delhi Police Busted Sex Racket Operating From Spa Centre, 11 Women Arrested.

Chief Minister Manohar Lal Khattar, who holds the finance portfolio, had presented the budget in the House on March 8.

"This budget is just event management and disappointing," Hooda said.

Also Read | Maharashtra Records Zero COVID-19 Deaths For 5th Time in March, Says Health Officials.

He described the budget as the job of an amateur mechanic "who has opened up an engine but does not know how to put it back together".

"The government says it has given a tax-free budget. But on the other hand, prices of all essential commodities are beyond the reach of common people. Inflation is taxation without legislation. Ask women from common families how difficult it is for them to manage the household budget," he said.

The Congress leader also took a dig at the state government's 'Gram Sanrakshak Yojana', under which officers will be adopting a village and working for its development, saying if serving and retired officers "will oversee development in villages, then what is the need of elected panchayats."

Hooda also targeted the state government for not filling up vacancies in various government departments.

"Under this government, about 1 lakh posts are lying vacant in government departments. Today there are no teachers in schools, no doctors in hospitals and no employees in government offices. By not recruiting employees, the government has done the work of minimising itself.

"The government is not conducting elections to gram panchayats... The government is postponing elections but is making unnecessary appointments like good governance associates," he said.

The Leader of Opposition said Haryana faces multiple problems and the government has no solutions.

"The state is facing problems like inflation, unemployment, corruption, agrarian crisis, deteriorating law and order, economic slowdown, declining investment, increasing debt, falling education level, health services, dissatisfaction among employees, bad roads, increasing poverty and depleting forests but there are no solutions in sight," he said.

He alleged the present government has pushed the state into a debt trap.

"The borrowing rate is higher than the growth rate of GSDP. The government has to take loans even to pay off the debt. If seen in totality, today Haryana has a debt of about Rs 3 lakh crore," he said.

Hooda also accused the government of turning a blind eye to the problem of unemployment.

The former chief minister said the government talked about implementing the new education policy and the plan was to spend 6 per cent of the Gross State Domestic Product (GSDP) on education.

"Far from increasing spending on education, it has been cut by 1 per cent. The attitude of the government towards education can be gauged from the fact that there are 46 colleges in the state that do not even have their own building and 127 colleges do not even have a principal," he said.

"Similarly, in the health sector, the government has been announcing medical colleges in every district for many years but not a single medical college has been built till date," he said.

Hooda alleged that almost half the payment of sugarcane farmers is pending.

"Farmers do not get MSP for different crops, including bajra, and farmers growing vegetables like potatoes have to sell their crops at a loss. Neither do farmers get the proper price for their crops nor do they get DAP and urea fertiliser on time.

"The government has been talking about doubling the income of farmers by 2022, but farmers know the reality. The input costs of farmers have doubled due to the rising inflation," he said.

Indian National Lok Dal (INLD) leader Abhay Singh Chautala also participated in the budget discussion.

He said the chief minister claimed it was a visionary budget but that did not appear to be the case.

"Budgetary provisions have been reduced for education and rural development sectors, while the state debt is mounting," 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)