PUDUCHERRY: The union budget for 2023-24 cheats farmers, charged former chief minister V Narayanasamy on Wednesday. He added that Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman untruthfully claimed the budget provides concessions to farmers, women, youngsters, and all downtrodden sections.
According to the Congress leader, there was no provision for employment in the budget for employment, even though unemployment continues to rise. He said around 21% of the population is unemployed in this country, and 27% is below the poverty line.
The budget has no mention of Minimum Support Price, which has been a long-standing demand of farmers, he said adding that farmers still have loans to repay. "There are no subsidies for seed, fertiliser, or free electricity schemes in this budget," he said.
Puducherry's debt of Rs 13 lakh crore would increase inflation and fiscal deficit, which has been estimated to be 5.9% this year, he said. Common folk will suffer, Narayanasamy pointed out. He said small and medium enterprises have not been allocated adequate funds in this budget for development.
Speaking about the allocation for highways, the former chief minister said Rs 75,000 crore was inadequate when work for Rs 4 lakh crore was pending. The allocation for housing, too is low at Rs 79,000 crore, and urban infrastructure projects and development projects will be affected, he said. “How will Nirmala Sitharaman fulfil the project of building houses for all with this amount," he asked.