Opposition used Niti Aayog platform only to shine their politics: Anurag Thakur said
Punjab Network, Chandigarh –
A Press Conference was organised at BJP, Chandigarh Head Office Kamlam today. Union Budget 2024 was the focus of the conference.
The conference was addressed by Member of Parliament Anurag Thakur.
Addressing the media person, Anurag Thakur, congratulated the Prime Minister on a historic third consecutive term as the Prime Minister of the country.
He also congratulated Finance Minister Nirmala Sitaraman, for a progressive budget that not only caters to all sections of the society but also to the needs of an aspirational India.
He said that the size of the budget had increased almost three times in ten years. In the Capital expenditure too there is a huge leap from 5 lakh crores, to 7 lakh crores, to 10 lakh crores, and now 11.11 lakh crores. When the capital expenditure of the government is so much, it will have a cascading impact. It will also lead to a hike in private sector investment, job creation will happen, employment opportunities will increase and our basic structure will be strengthened. Our fiscal deficit is now targeted to go down from 4.9% to 4.5%. Our foreign exchange reserves have increased from 320 billion dollars in 2014 to 666 million dollars.
He detailed the provisions made in the budget for various sections of the society. Poor, Farmers, Women, and Youth are the Castes given by PM Modi. The budget has laid special emphasis on these.
New Education Policy and a ministry for skilling were operational to increase the employability of the youth with a provision of about 1.48 lakh crores for education, employment and skilling. Respecting cooperative federalism 1.5 lakh crores is being given to the states, for the next fifty years without interest. A huge budget of 2.66 lakh crores has been given to the Rural Development Ministry for the development of rural areas. Women, another key focus area, one crore lakhpati didis have been created through self-help groups with a target to make three crore lakhpati didis.
Farmers being a key focus area, the BJP government, in line with the Swaminathan Commission report, is committed to giving 50% over the cost of production to the farmers and has been doing so with continuously increasing MSPs. The Modi government in ten years has purchased crops on MSP worth 18.40 lakh crores against a figure of 5.5 lakh crores during the UPA regime.
By abolition of Angel tax created by UPA and various other measures, the government is promoting Startups which have gone from 350 to 1,20,000.
Responding to a question he expressed his displeasure over the NITI Aayog boycott by the opposition-governed states which were using the platform of Niti Aayog only for the sake of doing politics. He said that BJP was in opposition; they always attended the Planning Commission meetings and put forward their issues. The absence of a feedback mechanism from the states is incorrect. Do the elected representatives of the states want to keep themselves away from this system today only to do politics? We have seen this in the Parliament in the last few years, this opposition only wanted to create a ruckus, he said.
On a question on MSP, he said that while the Modi government is doing so , AAP in Punjab before coming to power, used to say that if they do not give MSP, then will my government give MSP? Where is that MSP? Expressing deep remorse on the death of children in Delhi he asked what condition have they made of Delhi. They had committed to making Delhi a city of lakes. 3 young children have died by drowning in a basement in the capital of the country. Is this Arvind Kejriwal’s model of governance?
State President, Jatinder Malhotra, Co-incharge Himachal, Sanjay Tandon, Amit Jindal, and Hukam Chand, State General Secretaries of the party, and Dr Dharinder Tayal Chief Spokesperson, Sanjeev Rana State Secretary were also present on the occasion.
