Opposition flays annual budget, says Yogi in self-congratulatory mode

Opposition parties in UP Assembly trashed the annual budget for the 2020-21 fiscal presented on February 18, accusing the Yogi government of being in ‘self-congratulatory mode’, claiming that it had presented the biggest-ever budget of over Rs 5 lakh crore.

The opposition said on Monday that the annual hike in the budget was a routine affair and actual achievement lay in utilisation of budgetary grants and the government had singularly failed to spend money on development schemes and projects.

Initiating the general debate on budget, Leader of Opposition Ram Govind Chaudhary said, “There is an atmosphere of fear in the state as the BJP government is aggressively pursuing divisive politics based on caste and religion. Development works have come to a grinding halt. Even as the government claims to sign MOUs for investments worth lakhs of crores of rupees, nothing is visible on the ground. The government made tall claims that it presented the biggest ever budget akin to claims was made during the presentation of 2019-20 budget in February last year.’’

Chaudhary added, “The claim is fictitious as by adjusting 7.5 percent inflation, the actual budget size has in fact shrunk. Provisions in last budget for new schemes included was over Rs 20,000 crore which has dipped to little above Rs 10,000 crore for 2020-21.”

The Leader of Opposition also said that the utilization of budgetary grants in 2019-20 budget was less than 50 percent, yet the government inflated the size of the 2020-21 budget.

“There is no point in expanding size of the budget if the government lacks the resources for financing schemes and the ability and administrative competence to utilize the budget,’’said the Samajwadi Party leader.

Questioning the efficacy of development schemes of the government, the SP leader said, “The government claims to provided free power and LPG connections to millions of people in the state. But it also hiked power tariff by 27 percent in less than three years. Also, due to economic slowdown and high inflation, very few people are in a position to afford refill of the LPG. Instead of putting money in the pocket of people, the government is in fact extracting it from them.’’

Chaudhary said that the government’s policy of devoting each year’s budget for particular sector yielded nothing.

“The first budget of Yogi government in 2017-18, was dedicated to farmers, second for industrial development, third for women empowerment and the fourth and the present one for youth, education and employment. So far no sector has benefitted from the policy,’’he charged.

The SP leader also said that the haphazard loan waiver scheme for farmers announced in 2017 made little impact and thousands of farmers committed suicide and were still ending their lives.

Leaders of Bahujan Samaj Party and other members also participated in the debate which will continue on Tuesday.