Both ACCOUNTABILITY, VISION are MISSING from this Interim Budget: Kharge

NT Correspondent

Bengaluru: President of Indian National Congress and MP, Rajya Sabha Mallikarjun Kharge, while reacting to the Union Budget presented on Thursday, said: "We expected some new schemes to ease the suffering of the poor and middle class from this Interim Budget''.

''The FM has said that she will present a White paper on the previous government.

In this context, we ask the Modi Govt, the following questions: - 1. How many of the promises made by the government in the last 10 years have been fulfilled?

There was no mention of those promises in the Budget - 2 crore jobs annually, Doubling Farmers' Income, Pucca houses for all by 2022, 100 SMART cities, all these promises have not been fulfilled till date.

How did the Agricultural growth rate, which was 4.6% in 2014 plunged to 1.8% this year?

Why are 31 farmers forced to commit suicide every day? 3. How did the spending on Education allocation, which was 4.55% of the total budget in 2014, falls to 3.2%?

4. Why is the share of SC, ST, OBC & Minority welfare continuously falling compared to the total budget? Why is the Defence spending and Healthcare spending declining by the year?

Why is the Unemployment Rate highest in 45 years? Why has unemployment rate hit a peak of 45.5%, for youth aged 20-24?, he asked.

Kharge also wanted to know why the Modi Govt snatched the jobs of more than 3 crore people?

''Why are household Savings at a 50-year-low? Why is 5% to 18% GST imposed on essential goods? Why are the prices of flour, pulses, rice, milk and vegetables increasing day by day? The FM claims that the income of the common people has increased. This is a lie. The truth is that wages in rural India have decreased in the last 5 years. The FM did not even mention MGNREGA in the entire budget speech. During the time of the Congress led UPA government, work was available for 100 days, now it is reduced to only 48 days in a year,'' he lamented.

This apathetic government has also reduced the spending of the Ministry of Women and Child Development as compared to the total budget, he said.

''Why has female labour force participation, which was 30% in 2005, fallen to 24% now? 11. Why did the Average GDP Growth rate of the country, which was 8% during Congress-UPA rule, decline to just 5.6% under Modi Govt?

Ever since the Modi government came to power, only big dreams have been shown to people. Schemes are relaunched by changing names. How will the new dreams being shown get fulfilled?

Any budget has two aspects: One of which is to provide a status report on the previous years, and the other is to provide a vision for the next year. Both of these are missing from this Interim Budget!" Both ACCOUNTABILITY, VISION are MISSING from this Interim Budget: KhargeKharge lamented.