Excelsior Correspondent
SRINAGAR, June 1: The CPI (M) State Secretary and legislator, Mohammad Yousuf Tarigami, today said that the budget presented by Finance Minister Haseeb Drabu, is “directionless” and the key sectors like agriculture, horticulture and live stock have been ignored.
Tarigami accused the Government of ignoring the 2014 flood victims. He said that he was expecting a comprehensive scheme for the flood victims but the Government was silent on rehabilitation of flood victims. He also said unemployment which is a big challenge to the Government has been ignored in the budget.
Udhampur MLA Pawan Gupta accused Finance Minister Haseeb Drabu of presenting a misleading budget. He dared the Finance Minister to prove him wrong as he picked up holes in the budget. “Prove me wrong and I will quit. Finance Minister has not explained how he would meet the deficit gap of Rs 3000 crores”, he said.
Gupta said that Finance Minister has inflated the figures to present the misleading budget. He also said that economic survey was deliberately not presented in the Assembly just to hide the failure of Government.
BJP MLA RS Pathania welcomed the budget presented by the Finance Minister. However, he suggested the Finance Minister to reduce the tax imposed on civil aviation. He said that the tax will hit the pilgrims visiting various shrines and temples. He also suggested the Government that the Constituency Development Fund should be increased up to 5 lakhs from existing 1.50 lakh. He said that the meager amount is not enough to resolve the huge public demand of people in their respective constituencies. Pathania also demanded increase in the salaries of the legislaters.
People’s Conference legislator Bashir Ahmad Bhat termed the budget presented by Dr Haseeb Drabu as visionary. He said that the budget has touched almost all the sectors of the society. However, he said that there is scope of improvement in it. “The past mistakes has been corrected by Finance Minister by announcing number of pro poor and pro common people policies,” he said.
Senior Congress leader Ajaz Ahmad Khan termed the budget as disappointing. He said State Government has termed the budget a tribute to late Mufti Mohammad Sayeed but they disappointed the people. He said that Education, Heath and Agriculture have been ignored by the Government in the budget.
BJP leader Sukhnandan Kumar said that it is for the first time that concerns of the farmers have been touched in the budget. He demanded that Government should take care of all those schemes which had been initiated by the Government earlier. He also demanded enhancement of CDF of legislators to Rs 3 lakh.
National Conference leader Mubarak Gul said that previous Government made lot of efforts to return the power projects from NHPC and constructing own power projects. “Unfortunately, the Centre did not gave us counter guarantee. The present Government is silent over the construction of power projects in the State,” he said.
Gul said budget presented by Finance Minister has disappointed the flood victims. He said that flood victims, especially the traders were expecting a package from the budget. But unfortunately it is missing,” he said. He stressed upon the Finance Minister to amend the budget and make a comprehensive budget which would touch all the sectors of the society.
PDP legislator Noor Mohammad Sheikh said a comprehensive rehabilitation package should be announced for population living in slum areas of Batamaloo and other areas of Srinagar. He stressed that the daily wagers and casual employees working in various departments should be regularized. He also demanded that Chief Minister special fund for compensation for poor people suffering from cancer and other diseases should be increased from 30,000 to one lakh. He demanded that all the wine shops in the State should be closed.
Congress MLA Asgar Ali Karbalai said that he got disappointed with the budget presented by Finance Minister as he has not kept anything for the Ladakh division. He said that the cool storage which was long pending demand of Ladakh region was not given to Ladakh.
NC Legislator Ishafaq Jabbar said that Pandits should come to their respective homes as number of them have already returned in Ganderbal area. He said that infra structure scheme announced by State Government is not enough to resolve problems of people.
Meanwhile, Opposition in Upper House today termed the Budget as ‘visionless and directionless’ and said it is in ‘contradiction to the promises’ made by the Coalition Government in last year’s Budget.
Speaking during general discussion on Budget in Legislative Council (LC), the Opposition National Conference Legislator Ali Mohammad Dar questioned the State’s Finance Minister Haseeb Drabu over implementation of Budget proposals prior to discussions in the House.
“First of all, there is no fun of discussing this Budget… Soon after presenting the Budget, he (Finance Minister) ordered the implementation of the proposals. However, the tradition is that these proposals are implemented after discussion in the House. I request them to revoke the order of implementation of these proposals,” said Dar.
NC’s Sajjad Kitchloo termed the Budget as ‘visionless and directionless’ cornered Government over power sector and said last the Finance Minister talked about the return of power projects but recently the Union Minister for Power ‘punctured’ his claim by refusing to return them to State.
Kitchloo said the power projects in Jammu and Kashmir have potential to generate huge revenue and also employment for the unemployed youths. “But from last year there has been no work on them. They talked about 24×7 electricity but what about the areas which are still un-electrified?”, he said.
Congress Legislator, Naresh Gupta, endorsed the views of Sajjad Kitchloo over Budget and accused Government of looting resources of Chenab Valley. “The power projects in Chenab Valley have devastated its roads. There is nothing for the people of Chenab and this region is being looted by the Government.
Gupta said there is nothing for the welfare of the Chenab Valley residents in the Budget. “May be he (FM) couldn’t see towards them?” he said. He demanded an Air Ambulance for the victims of road accidents and said it should be stationed at Doda headquarters. Besides, the Congress Lawmaker also demanded a Forest College for the region.
“To create hype, the FM has used technical words in the Budget. This Budget is in contradiction to the promises in the previous Budget,” said Gupta. He added that there is nothing for the unemployed youth and casual labours in the Budget.
Though the ruling coalition lawmakers termed the Budget as ‘balanced’ and congratulated Finance Minister but expressed concern over the hike in taxes on Aviation fuel, mobile and I-phones.
People’s Democratic Party (PDP) Lawmaker, Zaffar Iqbal Manhas, said he endorses the Budget. He, however, said that the Government has skipped 10 lakh Paharis by not making any mention in the Budget. “These Paharis live on borders and are our first line of defence. They have taken bullets on their chests.The Government cannot forget them,” he said. He also urged Government to address the concerns of business community.
Bhartiya Janata Party (BJP) Lawmaker, Ramesh Arora said the Government shouldn’t have hiked tax on mobile phones, I-phone and toll. He also suggested Government to improve the police working conditions and sought VAT exemption for ex-servicemen. “Overall the budget is appreciative,” he said.
The Minister of Consumer Affairs and Public Distribution (CAPD) Chowdhary Zulfikar Ali meanwhile in the House said they have taken up the issue of exorbitant air fare to Srinagar from Delhi and other places with Union Aviation Ministry.
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