Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal on Monday said that the Union Budget 2021-22 will benefit few companies only and will increase the woes of common people making things costlier for common man.
According to the budget 2020-21, the national Capital received Rs 325 crore as grants in lieu of share in Central taxes and duties.
Delhi Deputy Chief Minister and Finance Minister Manish Sisodia said the Budget bypass education and health sectors, spells dooms for poor, middle class and farmers.
Targeting Central Government, Sisodia said the main focus of the Budget us to spend more by selling off Government assets without the common man benefiting at all.
Taking it to Twitter, Sisodia tweeted: “BJP ruled Central government disappointed Delhi as it received only Rs 325 crore despite Delhi people pay Rs 1.5 lakh crore amount to the union government via taxes. They (BJP govt ) haven’t pay single rupee to BJP ruled MCD in Delhi however during MCD elections, the BJP had announced that they will give money to corporations.”
Taking jibe on the Central government’s ‘Self reliant India’, Sisodia said history tells us that be it a family or the country, only those who invest in the education of their children become “Atmanirbhar”. “Reducing spend on Education by Rs 6000 Cr shows that the call for “Atmanirbhar Bharat” was a mere joke,” the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) leader said, mentioning, “The budget has shockingly reduced spending of Education Ministry by six percent from last year, seems like no lesson has been learnt from the Corona pandemic.”
Slamming the budget, the minister said, “One thing that was obvious during the pandemic was the crumbling public healthcare system of the country. One would have expected the Government to substantially increase the healthcare allocation. Instead, the Union Budget has shockingly reduced the healthcare budget of India by 10percent – showing that not a single lesson has been learnt from the Corona pandemic.”
Comparing and analysis the union budget with previous financial year’s -2020-21, Sisodia said, “A careful analysis shows that Ministry of Health budget has reduced by ten percent which is almost Rs 8000 Crore from 2020-21 to 2021-22 – from Rs 82,445 Crore to Rs 74,602 Crore.
Sisodia said, “Finance Minister’s announcement of 137percent increase in budget for “Healthcare and Wellbeing” is misleading and an attempt to hide the reality that this government doesn’t care for the health of the people. It clubs non-health schemes like clean air programme, water supply programme etc. to show an overall increase in Health expenditure.”
On the reduction of education budget amount, Sisodia who also holds the portfolio of education minister in AAP cabinet said schools and colleges have been shut for almost one year. This has led to a serious setback in the learning of students. “Any government that cares for our children should have provided additional allocation in Education to take care of this loss. What we see is a reduction in Ministry of Education budget by six percent (Rs 6000 Crore) - from Rs 99,312 Crore in BE 2020-21 to Rs 93,224 Cr in BE 2021-22.”
Sisodia took to micro blogging site, he tweeted: “While NEP 2020 promises an allocation of six percent of GDP to Education, the Union Budget has allocated only 0.6percent of the GDP to education. This shows the government’s real commitment to education. History tells us that be it a family or the country, only those who invest in the education of their children become “Atmanirbhar”. Reducing spend on Education by Rs 6000 Cr shows that the call for “Atmanirbhar Bharat” was a mere joke.”
On inflation, Sisodia said, “There has been an unprecedented rise in the prices of petrol and diesel under the current government. Rising fuel prices also result in high food inflation. In the last year alone, prices of petrol have increased from Rs 75 to Rs 86 a litre – an increase of Rs 11 in just one year. Diesel prices have increased from Rs 68 to 77 – increase by Rs 9. By further adding a cess of Rs 2.5/litre on petrol and Rs 4/litre, the government has shown it doesn’t care for the middle class or the economy.” “Prices of LPG in Delhi have increased from Rs 594 in November 2020 to Rs 858 today – an increase by 30 percent in three months. There was no plan, no announcement regarding controlling prices of LPG in the Union budget,” Sisodia added mentioning the plea of middle class recovering from income shock of Corona.