BENGALURU: Opposition BJP has slammed the coalition government’s first budget, terming it as an anti-people budget which is harsh on the poor and the middle class.
“Kumaraswamy has proved through this budget that he is at the mercy of the Congress and not at the service of the people. He has been unable to present a pro-people budget,” BJP state president and Opposition leader B S Yeddyurappa said.
He said on one hand, Congress president Rahul Gandhi urges the Centre to decrease the prices of petrol and diesel, but the Congress-JDS government here has hiked the prices of both by 2 per cent. “Even the Congress legislators are seething with anger against the budget for neglecting the interests of minorities and not addressing the problem of regional imbalance,” he said.
This is the budget of two brothers and by announcing schemes specific to their strongholds the chief minister has insulted the people of the state, he said. “Increase in diesel prices will hit the poor as it will have a cascading effect in terms of increase in prices of essential commodities,” he said. He also accused the CM doing injustice to the poor by reducing rice given to them under the Anna Bhagya scheme from 7kg to 5kg.
He said the CM is not honest on farm loan waiver issue either. “Having declared that he would waive off all farm loans, including those obtained by nationalised banks, the CM restricted himself to waiving of loans to the extent of `2 lakh applicable till December 30, 2017. This is nothing but taking farmers for a ride,” he added.