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Avneet Kaur/Ajay Joshi
Tribune News Service
Jalandhar, February 18
The Punjab Budget announced today has evoked a mixed reaction from residents in the city.
While a few of them feel that the Budget is a welcome step for farmers, industrialists, but there isn’t much for the common man as prices of essential commodities such as bread, pulses and flour are increasing every other day and there seems to be no end to inflation.
Industrialist Rajan Gupta hailed the Budget and said it would benefit all sections of society. The cut in the petrol and diesel rates was a big relief to industrialists, farmers, businessmen and every common man.
He said Rs 1,513 crore for free power subsidy to the industry would benefit thousands of industrialists of the state and development of the iconic sports complex announced for Jalandhar would further generate employment and would benefit sportsmen from the city as well manufacturers of sports goods.
Gupta said: “Allocation of funds for the Smart City and the Pendu Awaas Yojana announced to provide housing to the poor and Smart village campaign would further benefit people of the state.”
Paramjit Singh Doaba, president, Petrol Pump Dealers Association (PPDA), Punjab, said the members of the PPDA welcomed the decision of the state government, which had sympathised with them and rationalised VAT on petrol and diesel and reducing the prices by Rs 5 and Rs 1, respectively.
“We assure the government that price parity with bordering districts would prove a boon to the state as the volume sold would be more than the offset VAT reduction, thereby increasing the revenue of the state.
Paramjit said it would not only make petrol pumps viable but also reduce the burden on farmers, industries and trades, thereby attracting more business to the state.
There is still a difference in excess of Rs 2.80 on diesel (before reduction it was Rs 3.80) and Rs 4.69 on petrol (it was Rs 9.69 before reduction) between Mohali and Chandigarh which the state government has to address through whatever means. Therefore, on account of the entire petrol dealer community, we raise the issue further and are hopeful that the government would bring price parity on both petrol and diesel with all neighbouring states and union territories soon.
Dr Yash Mitra, assistant professor, Community Medicine, PIMS, said the allocation in health which was increased by 10.87 per cent was appreciable. However, more is required to stabilise the ailing health sector in the state. The government should provide more funds for the recruitment of ANMs and medical officers. The authorities should make a sustained effort to improve infant mortality and ensure treatment for TB and HIV patients.
“The government should also make equal efforts under the Tandurust Punjab mission to educate and aware rural population about health facilities and how to improve the health standards,” he said.
However, comrade Raghunath, general secretary, CITU, slammed the Budget presented by Manpreet Singh Badal and said the government had again proved that the labour class and scheme workers were the neglected class in the regime of the Captain government. There was no mention of creating more jobs and fulfilling more than 55 per cent of vacant posts in the Labour Department. Also, the promise of ‘Equal wage for equal work’ was neglected in the Budget. The expectations of labourers also found no space in it as nothing was stated about increasing the minimum wages offered to labourers. Besides, provisions for the Public Distribution System and availability of pure drinking water for backward classes were untouched.
“There are around 14,000 watchmen working in the state on a monthly salary of Rs 1,200, whereas as per the manifesto of the state government, nothing was stated about raising their salaries”, Raghunath said.
Sonali Sharma, district president, Sarv Shiksha Abhiyan (SSA), said no provisions for better salaries of teachers and the demand of temporary teachers to regularise them had been addressed or given due attention.
Talking about the announcement of the Sarv Shiksha Abhiyan and the Rashtriya Madhyamik Shiksha Abhiyan to be subsumed in the Samagraha Shiksha Abhiyan in the Budget, Sonali said, “It was in 2013 that the Ministry of Human Resource Department (MHRD) had asked all state governments to have only one cadre of teachers, and not separate categories of the SSA, the RMSA, or the state Education Department.”
She said the state government was trying to fool the teachers, just to hide their past mistakes, by offering us regularisation at Rs 15,300.”
Manjinder Kaur, a domestic help, said: “A common man like me demands essential commodities such as grocery, fruits, vegetables and among others things on reasonable rates which I can afford. The cost of bread which was earlier Rs 25 is now at Rs 30.”
She further said schemes such as Ghar Ghar Yojna, Pendu Awaas Yojna remains on paper only and never reaches us. “My son is a graduate but unemployed. There is no proper electricity in the village”. After every five years, new government comes to power in the state, but the situation of the poor remains the same.
Former minister and ex-state president of the BJP Manoranjan Kalia termed the 2nd financial Budget 2019-20 of the Capt Amarinder Singh Government an “empty budget” in which mostly schemes of the Central Government allocated to Punjab have been repackaged in the Budget.
He said in the Budget, most of the promises made in the Congress election manifesto 2017 such as giving of smartphones to the youth and unemployment allowance were missing. The Congress had promised for providing five lakh jobs to the youth in the manifesto. It means during the two years of the Congress regime two lakh youths should have been employed but in the Budget speech, Finance Minister has admitted that the government had given employment to 46,659 youths.
The price difference in petrol in comparison to Haryana is of Rs 7.50 per litre but the Capt government has reduced it to Rs 5 per litre only. The electricity rates for domestic consumers in Haryana is much cheaper in comparison to that of Punjab. He said parity should have been brought in the domestic rates of electricity in the state with Haryana.
Not much for common man
While a few of them feel that the Budget is a welcome step for farmers and industrialists, there isn’t much for the common man as prices of essential commodities such as bread, pulses and flour are increasing every other day and there seems to be no end to inflation.
Kalia terms it an ‘empty Budget’
Former minister and ex-state president of the BJP Manoranjan Kalia termed the 2nd financial Budget 2019-20 of the Capt Amarinder Singh Government an “empty budget” in which mostly schemes of the Central Government allocated to Punjab have been repackaged in the Budget.
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