BJP says state budget directionless, credits government for ‘talks only’

Ranchi: The opposition BJP on Thursday described the annual budget of Jharkhand tabled in the Assembly by Finance Minister Rameshwar Oraon as directionless and policyless.

State BJP President and Rajya Sabha MP Deepak Prakash addressing a press conference said that apart from being a directionless and policy-less budget it was also a budget that is far away from having intentions and vision.

He said that nowhere in the budget there is reflection of the thoughts of the Government of developing Jharkhand. He said that through his third budget the Finance Minister of Jharkhand has once again cheated the youth, farmers women SC ST and OBCs of the state.

Deepak Prakash said that after going through the budget speech one can clearly understand that in it only figures have been moved up and down and formality work has been done in the name of presenting the budget. The BJP leader said that as far as the budgetary allocation of 2021-22 is concerned the state government has managed to spend only 42 percent of the funds which shows the financial mismanagement and failures of the government. Further, he said that the growth rate in the present year has been projected at 8.8 percent and in the next year at 6.1 percent which was very less when compared to the centre and the growth rate of other states.

On the other hand, the leader of the legislative wing of the BJP and former Chief Minister Babulal Marandi said that the state government believes in making excuses and does not do any work on the ground. He said that if one would look at the budget which has been presented in the Assembly today and that of the budgetary allocation of the previous budget and the the various supplementary budgets then it would appear that all of them have been combined in this budget for 2022-23.

Marandi said that the people have lost faith in the government and they want results which is not being seen anywhere. He that there was a lack of roads power water electricity in the state and claimed that in the name of poultry pig rearing and goat rearing the people were only given cheques and funds were not transferred into the accounts. He said that whether it was widow pension or old age pension all of them have been stopped.

He said that in the budget it has been proposed to construct 1000 km of the road but in reality, in every assembly area nearly 10 to 12 km of roads will be constructed. Babulal said that that the announcements made in the budget will meet a similar fate as those related to unemployment allowance and Agriculture loan waiver schemes.