Continuing his criticism of the Bharatiya Janata Party State Government, previous Chief Minister Harish Rawat said that the budget tabled by the State Government in the Vidhan Sabha recently lacked anything new and was a “copy and paste” version of the previous state government’s budget. The former Chief Minister said this while addressing the media at the provisional State capital Dehradun on Sunday.
Speaking in a Press conference at the Congress Bhawan here, Rawat opined that soon after assuming charge in Uttarakhand, the BJP State Government had already taxed the people on several counts, whether it be in the form of bringing about a hike in water and electricity charges or whether it be in the form of introduction of cess on varied commodities. The former Chief Minister further averred that it was a misconception that the 2017-18 budget drafted by the state government is taxless as the state government had already taxed the people of the state to the tune of Rs 1,300 crore before even presenting the budget.
He went on to further State that the those who had been negatively affected the most by this budget were the people in Uttarakhand belonging to backward castes, scheduled tribes, scheduled castes and minorities because the welfare of these segments of society had not even find referred to in the budget.
Stating that most schemes of the previous State Government headed by the Congress had been carried forward in the recently tabled budget, the former Chief Minister termed the BJP State government’s budget a “copy and paste” budget. He further stated that there was nothing new in the budget. There is absence of a proper plan for the future with even the fundamental issues being completely ignored in the budget, the previous Chief Minister further opined.
What makes the situation worse is that in the budget, the BJP state government has also gone on to cut back on provisions for schemes linked to women empower and child development. Among various factors, the budget has also ignored very important sectors like horticulture which could provide the foundation for considerable development in a mountain state like Uttarakhand, added the former chief minister. Kedarnath MlA Manoj Rawat and other party office bearers were also among those present in the Press conference.