Chandigarh: The Congress today said the Manohar Lal Khattar government in Haryana has presented a “debt-ridden zero performance” budget which is deeply disappointing, growth-negative and anti-people.
People of Haryana have given a thumbs down to this “mere accounting exercise”, which does not provide a roadmap for future or gives the much-needed relief to agriculture, small businesses or an impetus for job creation, Congress spokesperson Randeep Singh Surjewala said.
The BJP government has led a prosperous and booming Haryana to the “verge of bankruptcy”, he alleged.
He claimed the state government has acceded that the debt has risen to Rs 1,24,935 crore in 2016-17 from Rs 70,931 crore in 2014-15, which is Rs 55,000 crore more.
“Debt touched the figure of Rs 1,14,048 crore in just one year. It’s a matter of record that the Congress government transformed the state in ten years yet the state debt increased by less than Rs 56,000 crore in all ten years,” Surjewala said.
But this “anti-public and inexperienced” BJP government has pushed the state into the debt burden of about Rs 55,000 crore in just two years, he said.
The Khattar government has itself declared that the debt will further increase to Rs 1,41,854 crore in 2017-18 but the increase in fiscal deficit from 2.49 per cent in 2016-17 to 2.84 per cent in 2017-18 reflects that the actual debt that would be raised would be to the tune of Rs 30,000 crore further burdening the people, the Congress MLA from Kaithal said.
The budget has made no provisions to fulfil the poll promises, Surjewala said adding that it is only a poor jugglery of figures to mislead the people.
He said the budget reflects “hidden taxes” of Rs 8,483 crore that are likely to be imposed on the people during the course of the year 2017-18.
He further claimed that the ‘Deen Bandhu Haryana Gram Uday Yojna’ and ‘Mangal Nagar Vikas Yojna’ are only “lollipops” as adequate funding has not been provided for these schemes.
The state government is trying to hoodwink people through lofty hollow promises, Surjewala said.