Haryana budget is of broken promises, shattered hopes: Cong

Haryana Congress Legislature Party leader Kiran Choudhry today described the state budget for 2017-18 as "broken promises and shattered hopes" and claimed that it has let down the farmers.
"It is a budget of broken promises, shattered hopes and lacks vision. It pushes Haryana under a Rs 1.41 lakh crore mound of debt," she said during a discussion on the Budget in the Assembly here.
"An opportunity wasted, the budget is a big let down for the people of the state in general, and farmers in particular," Choudhry said.
Haryana Finance Minister Capt Abhimanyu had presented the budget on Monday.

Choudhry, a former excise and taxation minister, claimed that no concrete steps have been proposed to pull the farm sector out of the "morass it has sunk into" and free the state from the huge debt which is pushing Haryana on the road to "bankruptcy".
"Since the budget offers no hope to the man on the street and does little to give the sagging economy a push, it will breed discontent among the people," she claimed.

Raising the promises made in the previous budget to attack the Manohar Lal Khattar government, Choudhry said, "Against the promise of medical college in each district, only three have been set up with MRI, CT scan machines."

"Even after two years, only detailed project report has been approved for the Government Medical College in Bhiwani. Since it was approved in our (Congress') tenure in the name of Ch. Bansi Lal, the name should be put up with the name of the hospital," she demanded.
"No private player has come forward either to set up medical colleges or for schemes to boost drinking water supply or tourism projects," Choudhry said.
Referring to the SYL canal issue, she alleged the government has not offered any action plan to ensure that the rightful and legitimate share in the Ravi-Beas waters will reach the fields of southern Haryana.

"They (farmers) have suffered like never before. The Swaminathan Commission report BJP swore by in the run-up to the elections and even later, has not yet been implemented and the budget is silent on this issue," the Congress leader said.
Against the promise of soil health cards to all for which Rs 15.02 crore was set aside in the last budget, only 1.8 lakh samples have been collected, Choudhry said and asked, "Where have the funds been utilised?"
She claimed that under the Fasal Bima Yojana, premium was taken from farmers but they have not been compensated for crop losses.

"While last year Rs 6,800 crore subsidy was given for power supply to the farmers, this year it has been reduced to Rs 6,300 crore, which means the farmers are not getting electricity and are using diesel to run farm operations," she said.