NEW DELHI, 7 February (H.S.) :
Federal concept being
harmed by not involving states in budget process, says Congress. Accusing the government of not including the states in
the process of preparing the Union Budget, the Congress on Friday said that
farmers have been ignored in this budget. Initiating the discussion on the
Union Budget for the financial year 2025-26 in the Lok Sabha, Congress member
Dharamveer Gandhi who was earlier with AAP said that our country is a union of
states, hence the budget should be prepared in consultation with the states. Gandhi
alleged that farmers have been ignored for the last five years and in this
budget also. He said that the current government's thinking towards farmers is
narrow. The government does not pay attention to the farmers and big corporate
houses are helped.
Claiming that unemployment
in the country is at an all-time high, the Congress member referred to illegal
Indian immigrants who were recently deported from the US.He said that children of farmers from Punjab, Haryana and
Western Uttar Pradesh go to America due to lack of employment in the country.
They are insulted and sent back from there.
He said that a good chunk
of country's resources is obtained from the states, its 'GDP' comes from the
states, but they are ignored in the budget making process. He alleged that the
concept of federal structure is being removed in budget making. This is a
budget of unilateral nature, not a federal structure budget. The budget is made
sitting in the rooms nowadays. He said that it is true that in the current
financial year, the manufacturing and service sectors contribute the most to
the Gross Domestic Product (GDP) and the contribution of agriculture is only 25
percent, but agriculture is very important and a large number of people are
dependent on it.
Gandhi said that the
government has not included the demands of farmers like legal guarantee of
Minimum Support Price (MSP), farm loan waiver, removal of GST from agricultural
equipment and introduction of a strong crop insurance scheme in this budget. Due
to all these reasons there is unrest among the farmers of the country.
Gandhi alleged that continuous
neglect towards the Micro, Small and Medium Enterprises (MSME) sector in the
country, accused that small enterprises were being harmed at the expense of big
corporate houses.He said
that the Modi government, which promised to provide two crore jobs every year,
could not do anything towards reducing unemployment and the youth of the
country have become completely helpless. Gandhi said that the expensive
education of private institutions, which are mushrooming in the country, is
becoming out of reach not only for the poor and the deprived but also for the
children of the middle class.
Hindusthan Samachar / Meenakshi Bhattacharya