Even as the Bharatiya Janta Party (BJP) glorified its achievement of one-year in the Government at the Centre, the Congress on Wednesday gave thumbs down to the party’s performance since it came to power and sought to counter the saffron party’s claim of achchhe din with gaps in policies and budgetary provisions for implementing those policies.
While speaking to media here on Wednesday, Spokesperson of All India Congress Committee and Member of Parliament, Gaurav Gogoi attacked the BJP-led Government of National Democratic Alliance (NDA) for making tall statements however backing it with halfhearted budget provisions. Gogoi’s salvo of accusations was specifically directed at Prime Minister Narendra Modi.
Reduction in budget suggests the mental state of this Government. They (BJP) make tall statements but when it comes to policies they fail to make sufficient budgetary provisions,” said the Kaliabor MP.
The Congress’s pin-point criticism of the Central Government included alleged reduction in budgetary provisions for agriculture and irrigation, decrease in budget for Integrated Child Development Scheme, cutting down funds for education sector, slashing budget for the welfare of Schedule Tribe and Schedule Caste, weakening panchayati raj institutions, trimming funds for National AIDS and STD Programme, reducing budget for housing sector besides virtually shutting down the project for ending regional disparity.
The oldest political party disapproved of ordinance route for the contentious land Acquisition Bill and offered a lesson on judicious use of legislative powers and moving ordinances based on the exigencies of situations.
“If they wanted to bring ordinances they should have brought it for agriculture sector so that loans of farmers could be waived, farmers could get minimum support price for their crops and they get assistance for growing other types of crops. But this Government is focused on one thing and that is land acquisition bill,” added Gogoi.
The Congress also questioned the Central Government about implementation of Food Security Act and highlighted bottlenecks in implementation as identification of beneficiaries is claimed to be far from complete. The Congress’ investigation says that only six states have completed beneficiaries of the largest scheme of its kind in the world.