Thursday, 02 February 2023 | PNS | DEHRADUN 

Terming the Union Budget presented by finance minister Nirmala Sitharaman on Wednesday disappointing, the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) said that the budget was prepared while targeting the poll-bound states in 2023. The AAP leaders said that overall the budget has disappointed the people of Uttarakhand. They called the budget anti-poor, anti-farmer and anti-Uttarakhand.

The State coordinator of AAP, Jot Singh Bisht said that Sitharaman has made the budget to benefit the BJP government in poll-bound states this year while completely neglecting welfare of poor, farmers and unemployed population. She made no provisions in the budget that can benefit these sections. He said that people of Joshimath are going through difficult times but the finance minister has failed to make any provision to provide them some relief amid the ongoing disaster. He said, “Our State needs a large economic package to overcome the difficult times it has gone through in recent times but the needs of our people have been completely ignored in the budget. 

The finance minister has made a brilliant effort to hide all the shortcomings of the budget by slamming the sheet of tax slabs on the budget.” He also alleged that the minister has claimed to insure 44 Crore people but also tend to hide the amount given to Adani Group through LIC by buying their shares of Rs 70,000 crore. Sitharaman claimed that the per capita income has doubled which was an attempt to conceal the poverty of 80 crore people who are currently being provided with free ration by the government, said Bisht. He said that the Modi government is always being accused of favouring the rich which was proved on Wednesday as only the rich have benefited from the budget. He said that only seven crore people come under the tax net of the government which would potentially benefit from the tax rebate while the remaining 114 crore people would get nothing.