JOIN USChief Whip of the government in Legislative Council Ivan D'Souza said that the Union budget has failed to address the concern of farmers, fishermen, labour class and unorganised sectors. The budget has failed to provide "Ache Din" to the citizens, he has criticised.
Briefing reporters here on Friday, he said the budget has failed to implement any measures to contain the rise in the price of essential commodities. Even when the price of petrol per barrel has reached $45 dollar, but the petrol price in India is still Rs 76.40 per litre, he charged.
Terming the National Health Insurance scheme announced in the budget as a "golmal," D'Souza said that the government had earmarked only Rs 2,000 crore for the purpose. It has promised of covering around 10 crore "vulnerable" families. "The health scheme is nothing but a blunder. It has no base and statistics. It is a baseless programme. It is an attempt to copy the Karnataka State government's health for all scheme," he said.
He urged Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Finance Minister Arun Jaitley to inform the public on who has been benefited from the budget and its welfare programmes.
D'Souza said farmers are in distress in the country. No welfare programmes have been announced for the farmers.
The BJP's manifesto had promised of increasing the price of farm products. When the UPA was in power, the government had to waive Rs 72,000 crore loan borrowed by the farmers. Now, the Centre has failed to take a decision on waiver of loan borrowed by the farmers and thereby has done injustice to the farmers, he said.
He said the cess on equipment for physically challenged persons has been increased in the budget, which shows NDA government's concern for the vulnerable section of the society.
"We had hoped for a separate railway division for Mangaluru. But the budget has failed to address the needs of the people of the coastal district. It has not even addressed the issues of upgradation of the national highway and irrigation projects. The budget has even not encouraged the small-scale industries," he said.
Even the promise of developing smart cities can not be implemented effectively by the Centre, he said and added that even after one year of the announcement of the Smart City project in Mangaluru, the implementation of the project is nil.