Himachal Chief Minister Virbhadra Singh on Wednesday termed the Union budget presented by Finance Minister Arun Jaitley as "disappointing and disheartening". He said it seems to be the budget of mere promises and commitments in which interests of the common man had been completely ignored.
"People of the country were expecting some respite after passing through the phase of hardship due to demonetization process but the Union government had failed to come up to their expectations. There was nothing in it for the farmers and unemployed youth and fails to create an impact on the masses," he said.
The Chief Minister said the salaried class and employees were looking forward to relief in income tax slab but the new provision made by the Union government would benefit low income group only.
Virbhadra Singh said it was unfortunate that Himachal Pradesh had been again ignored in rail budget and no mention had been made of strategically important Bilaspur- Bhanupalli-leh rail link. For more than twenty years, the execution work of Nangal-Talwara rail line was in limbo. The matter had already been raised with Union Railway Minister for extension of existing rail lines and for new ones too but nothing had been done by the Union government.
The Chief Minister, however, welcomed the step to reduce the limit for anonymous cash donation to political parties from `20,000 to `2,000.