Reacting to the Union budget 2014-15 which was presented by the Finance Minister Arun Jaitley, Uttarakhand Chief Minister Harish Rawat has expressed disappointment stating the budget overlooked the State’s expectation.
“We were expecting that Narendra Modi-led NDA Government would announce some bonanza for Uttarakhand, but they did not do so. Even the State Government had demanded Rs 2,500 crore as green bonus, which was completely ignored by the Union Government.”
He alleged that the previous Government has accepted the green bonus in principle, but the incumbent Government did not talk about that. “To reconstruct the disaster-affected areas, we had sought Rs 4,000 crore additional funds from the Prime Minister and Finance Minister, but they did not consider our demand.” “For the rehabilitation of the disaster-affected, we need financial assistance from the Union Government, but now it seems that Uttarakhand is not in their priority list. If they had announced to open a horticulture university in Uttarakhand, it would have been of great help to the State. For organic farming and renewable energy, Uttarakhand would have been best State geographically, but they did not consider Uttarakhand for this. They have proposed to build five tourist circuits and hope they would consider Uttarkhand in it.”
The previous BJP-led Uttarakhand Government had been consistently demanding an industrial package from Congress-led UPA Government, but this time, State BJP MPs, including three ex-CMs, did not raise the issue before BJP-led NDA regime. This budget has failed to meet the expectation of the State’s people. The CM further said that the general budget has overlooked Uttarakhand, just like the railway budget.
“They would have strengthened the State economy by taking concrete step for the State. Earlier, they were making protest against Foreign Direct Investment (FDI), but now they are inviting FDI in defence sector. They did not talk about how they would control inflation and how they would bring back the black money. It seems now check price rise and black money are not in their priority list.