Union Budget 2017 Anti-People: Telangana Congress

Terming the Union budget as anti-farmer, Telangana Pradesh Congress Committee (TPCC) chief N Uttam Kumar Reddy alleged that Union Finance Minister Arun Jaitley did injustice to the Telangana State in the 2017 Budget introduced today.

In a press note issued after the introduction of the Union budget, Reddy said that there was nothing new in the budget even as the Narendra Modi-led government claimed that it would unearth black money and curb corruption with the demonetization of the high value currency notes.

"The budget is nothing but magic of numbers," he alleged. He claimed that Rs. 10 lakh crores the Union government allocated for the agriculture sector was of no use to the farmers.

"Banks were imposing several conditions in lending loans to the farmers. Though the Centre made tall claims, it failed to announce support price to farmers' produce. There was no use in giving crop loans to farmers without strengthening the market and instilling confidence among the farmers with regard to prices for their produce," he said, adding that Jaitley's budget did injustice to Telangana.

The Centre also failed to include even a single assurance given to the State during the bifurcation of undivided State. He slammed TRS MPs for allegedly failing to pressurize the Centre to fulfill the promises it made in the Reorganization act.

The Congress leader recalled that the Centre allotted AIIMS to Gujarat instead of giving it to Telangana, and was gross injustice to the newly-formed State.

Employees, too, are unhappy with the budget as it only increased tax exemption limit from Rs. 2 lakhs to Rs. 2.5 lakhs, he said, adding that the budget was anti-people and anti-farmer.