The Opposition on Wednesday came down heavily on the Government in the lok Sabha on the economic situation of the country, saying its policies were “weakening the fundamentals” and accused it of reducing the allocation for the social sector Ministries.
Initiating a debate on supplementary demands for grants, senior Congress leader M Veerappa Moily said steps taken by the Government during the last six months proved that it was a pro-rich and anti-poor regime.
Moily said front page stories in every newspaper may be in favour of the Government, but all write ups in the inside pages on the economic issues “are against you”.
“Where are the achchhe dinIJ” the former Union Minister asked, referring to promises made by the ruling BJP during the election campaign. “You have been in power for more than six months...It (achchhe din) is not seen in the horizon… Funda-mentals are becoming weak. You must agree. It will take some years to restore the confidence,” he said.
Accusing the Government of being insensitive towards the problems of various sections including farmers and manufacturing sectors, Moily said the Government should agree that job creation has been reduced totally. Moily told Finance Minister Arun Jaitley, who placed the supplementary demands for approval, that the FM should not have been made the Information and Broadcasting Minister although it is a “colourful job.”
He said the Finance Ministry requires total focus and “being a good Finance Minister”, Jaitley cannot handle both the Ministries. The Congress leader also attacked the Government’s policies on banking and oil sector and said that the move to restructure the Planning Commission will destroy the economy.
Saugata Roy (TMC) criticised the Government for cutting expenditure on social sector schemes, including MNREGA, saying it was “cruel” that poorest sections were being deprived of wages under rural job scheme.
He said the Reserve Bank of India has ignored the Finance Minister’s plea to bring down interest rate despite easing of inflation and added that the Finance Minister was “helpless” in face of RBI Governor, who is a “noted economist.”