Interim budget evokes mixed reaction from political leaders

Srinagar, Feb 1: The interim budget for 2024-25 presented by union finance minister Nirmala Sitharaman in Parliament today has evoked a mixed response from the political leaders.

TARUN CHUGH

BJP”s National General Secretary and party incharge for &K and Ladakh Tarun Chugh in a statement said that the interim budget is focused on poor's welfare and is development and progress oriented. This budget has vision for Ram Rajya and it cares about the women and poor. It also has the commitment of a developed India and it talks about achieving the goal of Atmanirbhar Bharat.
“The budget also has in it the commitment for poor's welfare, upliftment of farmers, honour of women folks and happiness of our youth. I on behalf of crores of the BJP workers thank and congratulate our Honourable Prime Minister Shri Narendra Modi ji, Union Finance Minister Smt Nirmala Sitharaman and her entire team for giving us such a progressive budget which is cares for welfare and upliftment of all sections of our country,” he said.
Chugh added that in the past 10 years Prime Minister Narendra Modi has toiled hard to bring over 25 lakh people out of the poverty line , “while under him our country has broken all the records of growth and development of our economy,” he said. This budget also lays the strong foundation of making a developed India, the BJP leader added.

RAVINDER RAINA

J&K BJP President Ravinder Raina while congratulating the people for getting a highly appreciable budget, said that it will empower everyone as its main focus has been youth, poor, women, and farmers, and these sections constitute a large percentage of the Indian population.
“Grateful to Prime Minister Narendra Modi for people-friendly, and growth-oriented Budget,”he said in a statement.
The Union Finance Minister, Nirmala Sitharaman has focused on empowering everyone while framing the Budget, Raina said and added that it is also a budget for building the future of the country to fulfill the mission of making India a developed nation by 2047.
The BJP leader stated that that the budget is also a reflection of the young aspirations of young India. “New employment opportunities will be created under this budget, which will provide job avenues to the youth of the country. The provisions of the Budget will also add more facilities of travel by train across the country,” he said.
Continuation of the Awas Yojana scheme, Ayushman Bharat Yojana will further reach the poor and deserving people and the number of beneficiaries will go up, Raina said. He added that the income tax remission scheme announced in the budget will help about one crore people from the middle class, which will give a big respite to this section.

VIKAR RASOOL WANI

Budget disappointing for common man - Congress
JKPCC Chief Vikar Rasool Wani has said that the interim budget has brought no relief to the hard pressed common man, salaried class and record number of unemployed youth. He termed the budget as disappointing for the common man and said it was more a list of achievements with focus on elections than the hardships faced by the common man, unemployed youth, farmers and working class in the country.
“No relief has been given to the middle class tax payers, who are hard pressed due to high inflation, the poor is suffering due to unprecedented price hike but there is no provisions to control prices by reducing taxes on essential items and similarly the worst suffering class of educated unemployed whose number has gone from one core to 4.20 crore under BJP regime, as promise of two crore jobs annually has gone hollow and false,” he said.
Wani added that the claims of BJP government do not match the ground and the promises of “achche din” in 2014 are nowhere. The bringing of black money and depositing into accounts of citizens, two crore jobs, and controlling prices of petrol, diesel, and gas proved fake, he said .

CPI (M)

The Polit Bureau of the Communist Party of India (Marxist) in a statement has said despite the tall claims made by the Finance Minister about the state of India’s economy, the interim Union Budget for 2024-25 reveals the grim economic situation confronting India’s working people and the vicious face of the government’s conception of “development” which is designed to make the rich, richer and the poor, poorer.
“While the actual budget for 2024-25 will be the responsibility of the new government and the Parliament to be formed after the 2024 elections, the revised figures for 2023-24 tell this story. Though the revenue receipts in 2023-24 exceeded the budget estimates and grew by 13.3 per cent compared to the previous year, Central Government expenditures have been squeezed below budget estimates,” the statement said.