Excelsior Correspondent
JAMMU, Mar 1: The budget presented by Union Finance Minister Arun Jaitley elicits differing reactions with some favouring and some against it.
Former MP Lok Sabha Talib Hussain while hailing the budget said that the Union Finance Minister has been able to present the pro-farmers and pro-rural masses budget, who form over 70 per cent population of the country. Apart from Agriculture and its allied sectors, the Union Government has taken care of all the vital sectors of social upliftment of the people by giving priority to the spread of education through various schemes, he said and demanded effective and meaningful measures for the rehabilitation of 2014 flood victims and development of Jammu and Kashmir as a whole.
Reacting on the Union Budget of BJP Government at the Centre, Prof Bhim Singh, Chief Patron of National Panthers Party described the Modi Government budget as a fraud on the wretched of earth that exceed 50 per cent of the population of India today.
Describing the Union Budget as illusionary, hollow and a statement of fudged figures, a strong contingent of Panthers Party activists led by Harshdev Singh Chairman JKNPP and Yashpal Kundal State President Young Panthers held a demonstration against the outright disregard of J&K from the scope of the budget at Exhibition Ground. Speaking on the occasion, Harshdev Singh said that the current budget announced by Union Finance Minister Arun Jaitley had stored nothing for a common man. Yashpal Kundal disclosed that erstwhile BJP-PDP Government persistently harped on the return of NHPC power projects which would transform the economic fate of the State. With the budget announcement turning a blind eye over the issue, the NPP leader castigated both the parties for not fulfilling the “Agenda of alliance” and playing with the expectations of the people.
Shiv Sena (Bala Ji Sahib Thackery) State President Dimpy Kohli has termed Arun Jaitley’s annual budget a big fraud. He added that this budget has disappointed all the sections of society.
BJP State Spokesperson Balbir Ram Rattan, while terming the Union Budget as focused, result oriented and people-centric, said that the reactions of opposition parties are not only baseless but also disappointing as the arguments in support of criticism lack logic and rationale.
Terming union budget as disappointing for the middle class, former Minister and senior Congress leader Manjit Singh during a meeting of the workers said the displaced persons and refugees of Jammu and Kashmir have been betrayed by the ruling Bharatiya Janata Party. He appealed Governor NN Vohra to take up matter of package for the refugees and displaced persons with Central Government so that it could be approved and given to the DPs/refugees.
Jagti Tenement Committee and Pradesh Congress Committee (Migrant) held a meeting under the chairmanship of Shadi Lal Pandita. While speaking, Pandita said that though BJP was making tall claims of permanent rehabilitation of the Kashmiri Pandit community in Kashmir Valley, but no mention has been made in the union budget presented by Arun Jaitley.