Jammu and Kashmir unit of CPI(M) today criticised the state budget, saying it was devoid of any substantive relief for the common man and "lacked" concrete framework for revival of the state's economy.
"The budget presented by Finance Minister Haseeb Drabu is a reflection of mere figures being devoid of any substantive relief for the common man. Besides, it totally lacks concrete framework for revival of states economy," party MLA from Kulgam M Y Tarigami said.
No measures are proposed for resource mobilization and providing succor to the downtrodden sections under welfare schemes, he said here.
Despite the demand for adequate financial assistance for relief and rehabilitation of flood victims, no funds have been proposed, which is very unfortunate, he said.
Tarigami alleged that although a separate power budget has been presented, no future policy to augment the generation, transmission and distribution and improving the defunct networking has been proposed.
Core sectors like agriculture, horticulture and livestock, in terms of allocations, have totally been neglected, he said.
The state, being vulnerable to natural calamities, is in dire need of crop and livestock insurance schemes to provide respite to the affected, but those have not been incorporated, indicating the "insensitiveness" of the government towards these sectors, he said.
Tarigami said the farmers and fruit growers are subjected to losses due to substandard and spurious pesticides and no attention has been paid to end the menace by way of proposing testing laboratories in this regard.
He said the unemployment problem which has assumed alarming propositions has been left unattended, indicating lack of any roadmap to tackle the issue.
According to the MLA, harnessing of human resources and capacity building under skill development has also been ignored and even implementation of the 7th pay commission recommendations has been negated by the Finance Minister, which is very discouraging.
For revival of the industrial sector, the budget does not carry any vision, he said.
He said there was no talk of regularization of over 60,000 youth engaged under various categories and no time frame or policy has been envisaged in the budget for providing them wages regularly.
"Increase in honorarium of scheme workers including Anganwari Workers/Helpers, ASHAs, and Mid-Day Meal Workers has totally been kept out of the purview of the budget," Tarigami said, adding no enhancement has been proposed in the pension for the destitute like old people, widows, handicapped, orphans and poor students.
The budget appears to be a replica of BJP model of governance, which has miserably failed to take all on-board for development of the country, he alleged.
"No initiative has been taken after the visit of the Home
Minister. Time is running out," he said, adding "political leadership of the country must come forward and without any further delay should initiate political dialogue with all stake holders."
The CPI(M) leader also urged upon the authorities not to use disproportionate force against the protesters and should stop the use of pellet guns forthwith as announced by the Home Minister in his press conference at Srinagar.
He further appealed to the civil society of Jammu to raise their voice to urge Centre for initiation of political process to meet this serious crisis situation.
He emphasized that this is not an issue which concerns only one region or one community.
"It concerns the future of the people of entire J&K state. It is not just a religious issue but a long pending political issue which unfortunately remains unresolved since long," he asserted.
"Kashmir is on fire. Donot take it lightly. I want to appeal to the people of the country to come forward to address this fire and human tragedy. Militarization is no solution for Kashmir," he said.
