New Delhi, July 24 (UNI) The Congress on Wednesday described Union Budget 2024-25 as ‘Kursi Bachane wala’ (a save-the-chair exercise) and “appease friends” Budget and accused the Centre of reducing the allocation for agriculture.
Initiating the discussion in the Lok Sabha on the General Budget, Kumari Selja of the Congress, said, “The Modi government has reduced the size of the agriculture budget. The agriculture budget which was 4.97 per cent of the GDP two decades ago has now come down to 2.74 per cent.”
“The Swaminathan’s formula has been forgotten while fixing the minimum support price for agricultural produce. During our time, the MSP of wheat was increased by 119 per cent but the Narendra Modi government increased MSP of wheat by just 47 per cent and of paddy by 50 per cent.”
Selja said, “They are friends of the capitalists and do not understand the plight of the farmers.”
“Our government had waived off loans of farmers worth Rs 72,000 crores and Modi government has waived off loans of industrialists worth Rs 16 lakh crores. Today, every farmer has a loan of Rs 35 lakh. The present government has made farmers helpless and labourers.”
Alleging poor implementation of the crop insurance scheme, she said that last year the insurance companies received a premium of Rs 36 lakh crore under the crop insurance scheme but the claims are not yet settled.
She said that even today protesting farmers are sitting on the Shambhu border. The government is not ready to talk and calling them terrorists.
She said that till the government does not give legal guarantee of MSP, justice cannot be done to the farmers. “India cannot be developed by making farmers forced labourers.”
Saleja said the Finance Minister did not take the name of the rural job scheme in her Budget speech. She demanded that the minimum wage under the scheme should be Rs 400.
The Congress leader said that the government should take care of the poor. The rich are getting richer due to their policies. The poor man is facing the brunt of inflation.
BJP’s Biplab Dev said that Prime Minister Narendra Modi took charge of the country at a time when India’s economy was counted under the “Fragile Five”. But Modi, with his wisdom, transparent and honest efforts, revived the economy and today has brought the country to seven percent growth rate.
He said that during the time of Congress, the country’s budget was Rs 16 lakh crore, today it has crossed Rs 48 lakh crore. There has been an increase of 18.2 per cent in capital expenditure which will strengthen the infrastructure and increase employment.
Dev said that the Prime Minister has talked about providing employment to 4.1 crore youth in five years through the Budget. One crore youth will get internship in the world’s top 500 companies. After Japan, Korea and China, emphasis is being laid on skill development in India. Employment to the youth is also Modi’s guarantee which is being fulfilled through this Budget.
He said that a provision has been made in the budget to spend Rs 1.08 lakh crore on education. A provision of Rs 1.52 lakh crore has been made for fertilizers and Rs 1.75 lakh crore for subsidy on fertilizers. The government has made a provision of Rs 3 lakh crore for women in the budget.
The BJP member said that the Congress, which talks about the Constitution, has killed democracy by imposing Article 356 a total of 70 times and dismissing the elected governments. During the 10-year rule of Congress, Prime Minister Manmohan Singh never visited the North-East despite being elected Rajya Sabha MP from Assam. Whereas during the tenure of Modi government, there have been 700 visits of ministers and 90 visits of the Prime Minister to the region.
