Srinagar: National Conference Chief Spokesperson Tanvir Sadiq on Wednesday termed the annual Budget 2023-24 as a jugglery of words that failed to address the real issues faced by poor and working classes.
Reacting to the annual financial statement presented by the Union finance minister in Lok Sabha, Tanvir said, “It is sheer rhetoric. It is blind to the plight of traders, artisans, horticulturalists, transporters and unemployed youth which he stated have suffered from major reverses since 2014 deluge and successive 2019 clampdown and Covid-19 induced lock downs. It pays little more than lip service to the ailing hospitality and manufacturing sectors in Jammu and Kashmir. The budget has clearly steered of the problems faced by our struggling contractual employees and daily wagers. There is no package to help reverse the ills induced by the successive Covid clock downs.”
In a statement,Sadiq said the government’s claim that the welfare of farmers is their priority flies in the face of budgetary allocations. “We have been hearing for the last three years that farmers’ income will be doubled, but in reality, the income is getting halved. On the contrary the horticulturalists and people associated with other allied sectors of agriculture have been left out high and dry,” he said.
There was no discussion with the stakeholders in Jammu and Kashmir before passing the budget. “The exercise itself raises a question why an entire populace of nearly 1.4 Cr people continues to remain without a representative Assembly. An elected assembly could have discussed and ascertained the needs and aspirations of the people of JK before tabling annual budgetary allocations and estimates. It is again for the fifth time that the concerned stakeholders were not consulted before tabling of the budget,” he said.
Sadiq also said that J&K has not got any industrial corridor and the newly announced industrial estates are yet to translate into reality. He also sought renewal of lease to hoteliers in J&K, saying that inordinate delay in the renewal is impacting the trade—(KNO)
