Budget 'anti-poor, anti-farmer': Venkaiah

Former president of Bharatiya Janata party M Venkaiah Naidu on Saturday termed the General Budget presented by Finance Minister Pranab Mukherjee in Parliament as ''anti-poor, anti-middle-class and anti-farmer''.

In a press note released to media on Saturday, Naidu criticised the government’s move to hike the prices of petrol and diesel. The increase in prices of petro products would influence the transport charges and will impact on the prices of essential commodities, he said adding the housing sector was also hit due to increased prices of steel and cement.

He said the increase in Excise duties have a cascading effect on the prices of essential commodities which make the common man’s life miserable.

“The Congress party is totally insensitive to the sufferings of the people,” he said.

As there is no election imediately, there is no need to go to the people. That seems to have emboldened the Finance Minister, he pointed out.

The reduction of 2 percent interest on farmers’ loans for prompt payment is an eye-wash, he said. How do you expect them to make prompt payment when they are burdened with input costs and without remunerative prices for their produce, he questioned.

The paltry increase in allocation of funds to agriculture sector, NREGA and rural development will be lost in the largescale general inflation, he said.

The budget will not achieve the declared objectives of stimulating growth and controlling inflation, Venkaiah added.

A 12-member team from Singareni, deputed by the Government, has reached Chimakurthy to help the rescue efforts and extricate trapped bodies.

Fifteen labourers were working at the quarry and the government announced an ex gratia of Rs 6 lakh to each victim’s family.