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Left hails loan waiver for farmers

Special Correspondent

Faults lack of anti-inflation measures

No step to strengthen food security: Yechury
It will increase rich-poor disparity, says D. Raja

NEW DELHI: The Left parties welcomed the loan waiver for the debt-ridden farmers but said the “content, tone and tenor” of the Union budget reflected the preparedness for the general election.

They faulted it for not spelling out measures to contain inflation and strengthen food security as these issues were connected to the livelihood of people.

At a press conference here, Communist Party of India (Marxist) Polit Bureau member Sitaram Yechury said the budget failed to announce measures to check the rising prices of essential commodities and strengthen the Public Distribution System (PDS).

Food security

“Though many concerns expressed by the Left parties have been addressed to a large extent, the budget has not announced any measure to strengthen food security. We believe that without strengthening the PDS, it is not possible to check the rising prices of food grains. Some corrective measures in this regard are called for,” he said.

Two qualifications

On the proposed loan waiver for farmers, he said it had two qualifications — loans taken from nationalised banks, cooperatives and government institutions would be considered for waiver and not the ones taken from private money lenders and that loan waiver might affect the financial health of the banks.

“I guess the government will be issuing bonds for the banks in return for waiver of loans. The Left parties have been saying that this step could have been taken even without the budget. Anyway, it is better late than never.”

The budget indicated that the Finance Minister was “preoccupied to meet the targets of fiscal and revenue deficits.”

Though allocations for the social sector such as education and healthcare had been increased, these fell far short of what was promised in the Common Minimum Programme.

“Election stunt”

Terming the budget exercise an “election stunt,” Communist Party of India leader Gurudas Dasgupta said: “The only thing the Finance Minister did not announce was the election date.” There was no mention of the declining real wage of the workers and increasing casualisation, outsourcing and violation of labour laws. “There is no concern for underpayment and unemployment.”

CPI national secretary and MP D. Raja said the budget would increase the disparity between the rich and the poor and enhance the rural-urban divide.

The Left demand for setting up a national rural debt relief commission or reducing interest rate on loans to farmers to four per cent had not been accepted.

“Promises galore”

Revolutionary Socialist Party leader Abani Roy said, “The promises galore in the budget show that elections are fast approaching.”

All India Forward Bloc general secretary Debabrata Biswas described it as a “disappointing” budget, saying rural infrastructure was totally ignored and there was no step to widen the tax net.

“Suggestions for setting up a debt relief commission, price stabilisation fund for oil and more allocation for the ICDS have been ignored.”

The Communist Party of India (Marxist-Leninist) Liberation said there was no clarification on how the government would find the estimated Rs. 60,000 crore for debt relief.

Party general secretary Dipankar Bhattacharya termed the budget “populist,” and replete with “shallow half-measures.”

Text of Finance Minister's speech

Union Budget - Photo Gallery

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