State Agriculture Minister Badal on Thursday reacted to the announcements made by Union Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman regarding the relief package of Rs 20 lakh crore, saying that the announcements of the Central Government are monetary, it cannot be called fiscal help to the poor and needy.
Badal said that in time of epidemic, the Central Government is hesitant to provide funds from the treasury to help the poor and needy. He said that the announcement made by the Finance Minister, the loan has been arranged through commercial banks, NABARD, Grameen Banks or Co-Operative Banks, there is no cooperation in it and it cannot be considered an aid during epidemic.
Few months of exemption has been given in loan payment, but it will have to be paid and only Rs 10 thousand crore for MNREGA and 2500 crores for food security will come out of the treasury of the Government which is not sufficient, he added.
"The farmers are getting the same money as provided in the budget. Funds for the Pradhan Mantri Kisan Samman Yojana were being provided even without the COVID-19 crisis. But the cost of the crop will not fall in future, no measures have been taken for this. The farmers did not feel anything from the Government's announcement," said Patralekh.
Meanwhile, a day after announcement of the economic package by union Finance Minister, Nirmala Sitaraman, representatives of Jharkhand Pradesh Laghu Udyog Bharti on Thursday held a meeting with the State Agriculture Minister, Badal at Congress Bhawan in Ranchi and submitted a memorandum describing the package announced by the Central Government to help Micro Small and Medium Enterprises (MSMEs) as inadequate.
The representatives of Lahgu Udyog Bharti in the memorandum submitted to the State Government said that during the time of epidemic, revival of MSMEs is not possible by the package announced by the Central Government. They informed that the grant is still awaited by the Government to the MSMEs and it is expected that the State Government will also make necessary announcements to provide relief soon.
The industrialists demanded to the State Government that the business during lockdown was completely closed for 54 days, during this time only fixed electricity bill should be charged, whereas for MSMEs, many other government concessions need to be taken immediately. The delegates also said that it is not possible to pay the dues of the workers due to no production during lockdown, so all the dues should be paid by the Government.
Badal assured them and said that he will convey the message to Finance Minister of the State and will also try to find way for their problems. He said that there is a need to work in coordination to solve the problems of micro-small enterprises and farmers and concrete steps are being taken by the State Congress Relief Monitoring (Kovid-19) committee in this direction.
Members of the committee and state spokesperson Alok Kumar Dubey, Lal Kishorenath Shahdeo, Rajesh Kumar Gupta and Sunny Toppo were present on the occasion.