New Delhi, Feb 7 (PTI) BJP MP Nishikant Dubey on Monday hailed the Union Budget 2022-23 as the government’s “effort” to give relief to everyone in the country including farmers and poor people, and hit out at the Congress for picking holes in it, saying the main opposition party has nothing else to say.
Participating in a discussion on the budget in Lok Sabha, he said the government has earmarked Rs 73,000 crore for the rural job guarantee programme, MGNREGA, for the fiscal 2022-23 and lashed out at the Opposition, saying the allocations for this scheme never went beyond Rs 35,000-40,000 crore during Congress-led UPA regime.
Dubey hailed the government’s proposal to promote use of Kisan Drones and chemical-free natural farming in 2022-23 and said government’s commitment to encourage “organic farming” in five-kilometre wide corridors along the river Ganga will benefit farmers of Bihar, Uttar Pradesh, West Bengal and Jharkhand.
“Under Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s leadership, budget has been brought in the interest of villages, poor (people), farmers, tribals, and backwards (classes). But, these days, Congress is suffering from selective amnesia. It talks about only what it sees in its favour,” he charged The BJP MP said implementation of Ken-Betwa rivers linking project will benefit the farmers and asked the Opposition “if it is not a budget for the country and the farmers.” He said a proposal for interlinking of rivers had been brought by the Atal Bihari Vajpayee government but “the Congress (after it came to power) did not do anything (to implement the project).” “Yuvraj (prince) is ultra communist leader. He toes their (communist) line because he never saw a village, farming, poor. That’s why they decided that there should not be any interlinking of river….”, he charged, training guns at Congress president Rahul Gandhi without taking his name.
The BJP leader also slammed Congress for staging a walkout from the Lok Sabha in protest of Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman’s absence from the House when the debate on the Union Budget was initiated, accusing the main opposition party of resorting to such “tactics” to stall the discussion in the House.
“The Congress can not decide if they have to support or oppose. They boycotted and have come back (to the House)…..After enjoying power for 10 years, the Congress is using such tactics to stop the discussion (in House) as they have realised that they can not come back to power,” he charged.
He said people have given their mandate to Prime Minister Narendra Modi for the second consecutive term because he has worked for them and alleged that the Congress has “only made mockery of poor people and their poverty.” “Today, We have seen dream for 25 years. Be it tax, MGNREGA or PM Gati Shakti, we have tried to give relief to every one. I support the budget,” he said.
DMK member Dayanadhi Maran objected to the absence of Finance Minister Sitharaman in the Lok Sabha alleging that “she has no respect for the House.” Citing rules, Minister of State for Parliamentary Affairs Arjun Ram Meghwal said the government can be represented by other ministers as Sitharaman was in a press conference.
Maran retorted by stating that for Sitharaman, India Today Conclave was more important than Parliament. “It is an insult to the House” he said, adding the minister did not even listen to the views of BJP members on the Budget.
Describing the budget as “anti-people”, he said it discriminated against the non-BJP ruled states. “You are ignoring the southern states,” he said, alleging that only selected states are getting funds from the central government.
The central government, he said, brushes aside important and crucial matters by citing absence of data.
He also accused the centre of not providing any funds to Tamil Nadu to meet the crisis caused by floods in Chennai or closure of textiles units in Tirupur because of the pandemic.
Maran also objected to the decision of the government of picking up stakes in Vodafone and not doing anything to help the MSME sector which had suffered during the pandemic.
The budget, he regretted, did not mention a word about the state-owned telecom companies BSNL and MTNL.
Trinamool Congress member Sudip Bandyopadhyay also objected to the absence of Sitharaman during the debate on the budget.
The budget, he said, “was long on promise and short on effect.” Describing the budget as “sell India budget”, Bandyopadhyay wanted to know why the government was trying to sell profit-making PSUs and also LIC which has a balance sheet equal to the budget of the country.
The government, he demanded, should inform the House about the expenditure on central vista and Pegasus agreement. PTI PK CK
