Ongole: Mixed response on Union Budget 2020-21

Ongole: The political parties and common public expressed a mixed response on the Budget 2020-21 introduced in the parliament on Saturday.

The CPM east Prakasam district secretary Punati Anjaneyulu opined that the budget has completely neglected the Andhra Pradesh state and the promises made to it in the bifurcation bill.

He alleged that the government wants to distance away from the social responsibilities by disinvesting in the public undertakings like railways and LIC and inviting foreign companies into education and health and medical field to make higher education and medical treatment costlier further.

Macherla Mohan Rao from the National Federation of Handlooms and Handicrafts said that the government has neglected the welfare of 1.3 crore families dependent on the handlooms and handicrafts. He said that there are 35.45 active handlooms in India but more than 30 lakh of them are providing wages of less than Rs 10000 per month.

He said that the Mahatma Gandhi Bunkar Bima Yojana and Handloom Weavers Comprehensive Welfare Scheme are not implemented well and the allocations for Amended Technology Upgradation Scheme for handlooms is just Rs 485 crore and for handicrafts is Rs 388.21 crore while it is allocating the power loom and apparel allocations are Rs 761 crores.

He said that the allocations for handlooms is 0.016 per cent and handicrafts is 0.013 per cent in the total Rs 30.42 lakh crores budget for the fields that are providing livelihood to more than 4percent of the population.

However, the BJP district president PV Krishnareddy praised the budget as a common man budget. He mentioned that the government allocated a total of Rs 15 lakh crores for the agriculture and benefits of farmers in the budget.

He said that the government is desiring to spend Rs 33,000 crores for infrastructure, Rs 69,000 crores for health, Rs 98.89 crores for education, 55,000 crores for SCs, Rs 85,000 crores for OBCs and STs and lay 2,500 kilometres of highways in the financial year 2020-21.