The Hindu : Interim Budget against poor: Prem Singh

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Thursday, Feb 05, 2004

New Delhi

New Delhi

Interim Budget against poor: Prem Singh

By Our Staff Reporter

NEW DELHI, FEB. 4. The Delhi Pradesh Congress Committee president, Prem Singh, today alleged that the interim budget presented by Jaswant Singh in Parliament was discriminatory against the poor and ordinary people for while it gave no benefits to them, it doled out largesse to the rich and the powerful.

Stating that this would only put unnecessary burden on the exchequer, Mr. Singh said the budget was not sensitive towards the needs of a majority of the countrymen as it gave a raw deal to the labour class, farmers and the middle class as well.

Addressing a Congress rally at Babarpur in the trans-Yamuna area, Mr Singh said the BJP and its allies have stalled the development and bartered away the interest of the country during their rule. Describing the regime as the "most corrupt, scam ridden and anti-people in the history of the country'', the Congress leader said it has ruined the economy with its philandering ways and warned that the poor and the common people, who were the worst sufferers, would now in the Lok Sabha elections inflict upon the NDA its worst-ever defeat.

Elaborating on the issue, Mr Singh said while on one hand the heritage properties and other assets have been disposed off at throwaway prices to vested interests on the pretext of disinvestment, on the other the government has displaced numerous poor living in jhuggi jhopri clusters without even making proper provisions for their resettlement.

"The jhuggi dwellers are being made to suffer in severe cold as they have been herded to far away places which lack basic amenities like power and water.''

The DPCC president said just the way Delhi voted back the Congress Government due to its excellent performance on the development front, despite its having limited powers in the absence of full Statehood, so too would the party under the leadership of Sonia Gandhi sweep to power at the Centre, in the process winning all the seven seats of Delhi.

The All-India Congress Committee secretary, Anil Shastri, who also attended the meet, said the BJP-led Central Government has not only ruined the country in the name of disinvestment, through the interim budget it has also put unbearable burden on the exchequer. Further, he warned that while the budget appears "populist'' it would only help and aid the rich, who are the actual support base of the BJP.

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