Reacting to the Union Budget for 2016-17, Chief Minister Akhilesh Yadav lashed out charging that it has totally ignored the interests of a big state like UP. He said that the budget is directionless and nothing significant has been provided for the poor and the rural areas.
“The Union budget has no provision for UP proportionate to its population and the interests of the state have been overlooked by the Centre. There is no new scheme for farmers, youths, minorities, OBCs and women. The budget is merely a jugglery of statistics which will not impact the lives of the common man,’’ said the Chief Minister.
“The budget should have been orietned towards farmers and agriculture. It has also drawn a blank on the Agra-lucknow Expressway and various important infrastructure projects in the state,” said he.
Yadav further maintained that the budget has also disappointed the state employees with the Income Tax exemption limit not being raised. “In the absence of any change in Income Tax slabs, even the lower rung state employees would come under the tax net. What is more, even the old pension system has not been restored by the Centre,” said the CM.
“The budget is in effect inflationary since the Service Tax on several services has been hiked resulting in increase in Rail and Air fares. The budget has laid emphasis on agriculture, rural and social development, employment creation, financial reform, infrastructure development but it fails to draw a clear road map for achieving these objectives. Hence, this can be aptly termed as ‘totally directionless’,” said he.
Yadav regretted that Finance minister Arun jaitely ignored the series of letters written to the PM seeking financial assistance for several important projects for development of infrastructure in the state.
“There is nothing new in the 2016-17 budget. The UP government has announced to provide free land for the institute of medical sciences in Gorakhpur and also to set up a power plant. The medical facility at Gorakhpur would have immensely benefited the people of eastern UP, Bihar and Nepal. But there is no provision for both the projects,’’ said the CM.
“UP is the most populous state and has elected 71 MPs of the BJP to the Parliament. Even the Prime Minister is a member of the lok Sabha from UP. Yet, there is no long term plan for development of the state in the Union budget nor any special provisions been made. Instead of extending relief, the budget has sought to shift the burden of Central-sponsored schemes on the UP government,’’ said a critical Yadav.
The CM said that the UP government is funding the construction of the Agra-lucknow expressway which will be commissioned by the end of 2016. It is also funding the Samajwadi Purvanchal Expressway linking lucknow to Ballia for which a provision of Rs 1,500 crore has been made in the 2016-127 budget. He said apart from these, the state government has constructed large number of four lane roads and bridges from its own resources.