Terming the Union Budget disappointing, Chief Minister Bhupesh Baghel said here on Friday that it had nothing to support the state in tackling the Naxal menace in affected districts and was also bereft of any new provision for the aspirational districts.
Talking to media persons here, Baghel also charged that there was no clear plan for boosting the small and medium scale industries, which generate employment. All the old schemes were renamed and there was nothing new in the union budget, he said.
He also reprimanded the Union government for pushing Public Private Partnership (PPP) mode for Indian Railways. “This will reduce employment opportunities for youth as the biggest employment provider will go in private hands,” he said.
Commenting on farmers’ issues, he said the allocation for agriculture was toomeager to address the problems in the sector and the MSP increased for paddy was insufficient. The demand made by the state to increase the Kisan Samman Nidhi from Rs 6000 to Rs 12000 was also ignored, he said.
Baghel said "the budget lacked any proposal to give an impetus to the employment generation programme and the government even failed to put the figures as to how many youth were employed by the Union government’s flagship programme of skill development ".
Baghel further said that the budget lacked any proposal to arrest the prices of essential commodities or rein in the skyrocketing price of petrol, diesel and LPG. The budget was especially disappointing for the middle class as no relief in tax slab was given to them.
“The increase in tax on petrol and diesel was also disappointing and the budget was also silent on the demand for providing drinking water and roads to each and every household”, he said.