Farmers Movement Archive

Kiran Choudhry seeks privilege proceedings on distortions in budget speech

Former Congress Legislature Party (CLP) leader Kiran Choudhry on Monday sought initiation of privilege proceedings against those responsible for distortions and inconsistencies in the 2021-22 budget speech delivered by Haryana chief minister Manohar Lal Khattar in the assembly last week.Speaking on the budget estimates in the House, Choudhry said it was rather unfortunate that the budget speech had so many errors and inconsistencies.“Who is responsible for this? There are so many conflicting aspects in the English and Hindi versions of the speech. Also, there is more than one English version of the speech. We would like to know which is the correct version. The matter should be referred to the committee of privileges of the assembly. Presentation of budget estimates is a serious business but the speech is misleading,” Choudhry said.She added that the budget estimates were nothing but an illusion of statistics. “Numbers have been manipulated and cloaked,” she said.Quoting a number of inconsistencies including paragraph numbers, the Tosham MLA said that even the statistics have not been presented in a transparent manner.“The allocation for health and wellness included an amount of ₹394 crore for the sports department. It has been appended to the health sector allocation to jack up figures,” she said.The former minister said that increasing debt liability and revenue deficit is a cause of concern. “Borrowings for the next fiscal have been pegged at 38.41% of the consolidated fund and 30.8% of the borrowings will be used for repayment of debt and interest,” she added.The Congress MLA said that while the financial mismanagement of the government was written large, a fact substantiated by declining revenue receipts, the government unabashedly is self-patting.Choudhry questioned as to why the rural electrification (RE) subsidy in 2021-22 has come down to ₹5,600 crore from ₹6,040 crore in 2020-21.0Also, Jannayak Janta Party (JJP) MLA Ram Kumar Gautam, an ally of the ruling BJP, slammed the enactment of 75% private sector job quota law during his address.“It is one nation and it should stay united. Do not turn the nation into a small municipality. Such laws will break unity of the country,” Gautam said.The JJP MLA urged the state government to end the deadlock with protesting farmers as the farmers’ agitation will spell doom for politicians.“Even people like me, who are against the three farm laws enacted by the Centre, are not allowed to enter villages,” he said.Gautam praised former CM Bhupinder Singh Hooda for undertaking development in the state during the Congress rule, particularly in Rohtak.“I call a spade a spade. I always value good deeds whether they are by present CM Manohar Lal Khattar or his predecessors,” Gautam said.

Hindustan Times

15-03-2021

Chandigarh