Haryana budget is hopeless, disappoints all sections of society: Congress
Expressing concerns over the state debt, pegged at nearly Rs 1.98 lakh crore, Leader of Opposition Bhupinder Singh Hooda said there has been a three-fold increase in debt in the past five years.
"This means, in an average, every Haryanvi now carries a debt of Rs 80,000 on his head. This budget will push the state deeper into debt," he said.
"There is nothing in this budget which will please any section," Hooda, a former chief minister of the state, added.
Congress chief spokesperson Randeep Singh Surjewala called it an anti-people budget. "It is a hopeless, anti-people, debt-ridden and zero-performance budget," he said.
"The BJP-led government has pushed Haryana to the verge of bankruptcy," he said, adding that state debt has increased by nearly 280 per cent in five years.
Surjewala said the Haryana budget gave "zero hope" to the youth and asked why it did not mention how many jobs it would create as the state had the "highest unemployment rate in the country at 28.7 per cent".
Haryana Congress president Kumari Selja said the budget "disappoints every section".
"There is nothing in this budget for the youth, farmers, Dalits or any other section," the senior Congress leader said, expressing concerns over the state's "mounting debt".
Hooda demanded that the BJP-JJP government issue a white paper on the state of the economy.
"We want to know how the debt increased more than three times in five years when the state government brought no major project or initiated any major development work," he said, adding, "30 per cent of the budget will go into servicing debt."
"Where will the money come from for building roads, schools, hospitals," Hooda asked.
He claimed the chief minister has just made "hollow promises" in the budget. None of the poll promises of the JJP has found place in the budget document, he added.
"The budget has overlooked hike in old age pension, there is no talk of giving pay scales to employees at par what Punjab government employees get, there is nothing on loan waiver for farmers, no concrete plan has been spelt out how unemployment will be tackled, there is no policy to attract investments.
"Besides, there is nothing to boost the automobile and the real estate sectors or for Panipat and Yamunanagar where the textile and the plywood industry are struggling," Hooda said.
Lone Indian National Lok Dal MLA Abhay Chautala said there was nothing in the budget and dubbed it a "jugglery of words."
Haryana BKU leader Gurnam Singh said the budget has "little" allocation for agriculture. No announcement has been made for farm debt waivers, he added.
"No roadmap has been declared to protect the agri sector," Singh added. SUN VSD IJT