The Congress Working Committee member, AICC general secretary and former Chief Minister Harish Rawat said that the Budget presented in the Vidhan Sabha by the State Government is disappointing and one that will actually fuel unemployment.
Addressing the media, Rawat said that the State’s Budget for 2019-20 is quite disappointing. “There is a bit of Deendayal Upadhyay, bit of Modi, a bit of ‘Mr Zero Tolerance’ and some old proposals. If you listen to the Finance Minister’s Budget speech there is hardly any difference between this speech and his first speech some years ago. The State Government has changed the names of some schemes.
Like during our tenure, we had a revolving fund for assisting self help groups while now the State Government has simply named the scheme after Deendayal Upadhyay. They have not even provided information about how many self help groups have been revived. There is no sign of Uttarakhand, its spirit or the youth in the Budget. The Finance Minister Prakash Pant spoke as if the growth rate is running as fast as Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s bullet train. However, the agricultural growth rate is minimal, the manufacturing sector has seen a downturn while even the service sector is experiencing stagnation.
How can the growth rate be rising if all the major sectors are experiencing a downturn?” He further questioned why the Government was not succeeding in tackling unemployment.
Stating that there are currently about nine lakh registered unemployed persons in the State, he said that while the rate of rise in unemployment registration rate is nine per cent at present, during the Congress Government’s tenure in 2015-16 and 2016-17 the Government had succeeded in bringing this rate down to about 2.5 per cent. He said, “This Budget will actually raise unemployment. This is because the infrastructure-especially in rural areas has been ignored while the budgetary outlay has been decreased for social welfare and other important sectors including public works, industry, transport and irrigation. There is a lot of talk about the investors summit held last year but the Government does not mention how much investment has come and where it has been placed.
Since the investors summit, at least a dozen industrial enterprises in the State have either shut down or are near closure.
The Government brags about ease of doing business whereas in reality, during our tenure, the State was in ninth position while now it is ranked 11th in ease of doing business. In addition to this, the big sin committed by this Government has been to amend the Act that will now result in the remaining lands left with the natives to be sold for cheap rates to industrialists and influential persons.
This shows the actual intention of the Government,” he said. The former Chief Minister also lambasted the State Government for its decisions and steps taken in the agricultural sector, public health and other important sectors. He alleged that the State was not even sending necessary proposals to the Centre to derive the full benefit of centrally sponsored schemes. He also questioned the zero-tolerance stance of the Government. He said, “What kind of zero tolerance is this in which you are one and all-the inspector, commission, court and judge but there is no Lokayukta?”
