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