AGARTALA, March 14 (TIWN): The annual budget presented by the Modi government is an articulation of anti-people and pro-corporate bias camouflaged by so-called pro-people rhetoric, Said Chief Minister Manik Sarkar on Friday addressing the Tripura Electricity Worker’s Union 15th State Conference. Sarkar said the budget speech was eloquent on pushing disinvestment of shares of public sector and this time the finance minister also mentioned about “strategic disinvestment” meaning total sell-out. As such, the target for disinvestment is kept at Rs 69,500 crores. However adding to that Sarkar said that there has been found no difference between the Congress led UPA-II govt. and the NDA led BJP govt. at the nation.

Addressing the gathering at Agartala Rabindra Bhawan today during the Tripura Electricity Worker’s Union 15th State Conference, Chief Minister Manik Sarkar making a sharp attack on the BJP govt. and its Union budget 2015-16 criticised the Centre for "not taking pro-people policy". Sarkar called for a movement to press the NDA government for changing its outlook so that marginalised people could be benefitted. "The NDA government failed to keep its promise of adopting pro-people policy after coming to power. The BJP government did not attempt to curb the price hike of essential commodities. It rather took decisions for the sake of the capitalists in the country and abroad," Sarkar said.

Later talking on the 2015-16 union budget Sarkar said that the first full-fledged budget of the Modi government presented an exercise reflecting a visible contraction in expenditure almost on all fronts leading to a decline of Rs 17,145 crore compared to 2014-15. And such decline is reflected in either drastic fall or stagnation in expenditure/allocation of central plan outlay in the sectors like agriculture, rural development, social services, health & family welfare, women & child development, education, minority affairs etc. And a notable feature is that, compared to last full-fledged UPA-II budget in 2013-14 (2014-15 budget was a product of both UPA and NDA) decline in budgetary allocation in all fronts, particularly involving welfare of common people is so drastic that the size of the entire budget gets pruned by around Rs 3 lakh crore. “Can such contractionary budget create any momentum for growth?” Sarkar said.

“A primary glance of the voluminous budget papers clearly reveals the total deception being engineered on the people by the Modi government, which actually initiated an exercise of transferring bonanzas to big-business corporate lobby, and squeezing the common people and the working people in particular”, Sarkar said. Adding to that he said this can no way bring either equitable growth in the economy nor even any relief, not to speak of benefit to the people who actually create growth and generate flows to national exchequer. Such anti-people and deceptive exercise must be exposed before the common people and fought back resolutely by the united trade union movement.