Trinamul Congress MP and former Union minister Shatrughan Sinha on Thursday said the interim budget presented by Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman has nothing for youths or the poor.
"This interim budget is the last budget of the government. A lot of things have been said. They've announced schemes that will concluded in 2047, 2050... those schemes will be there, but it will be implemented by the new government," said Sinha, the Lok Sabha MP from Asansol in West Bengal.
There wasn't much hope from this budget, he said. "Yet people are watching closely how the government is trying to divert attention from main issues -- the issues related to employment, poor, youth, and the promise of doubling farmers' income." "They kept announcing that we are the fifth largest economy, but people can see that per capita income here is lesser than what it is many other countries.. Why are people so poor?" he told PTI.
While Sinha welcomed the government's announcement of vaccination against cervical cancer, he said there should have been an announcement about health insurance to the poor.
"There are cancer medicines, medicines for heart ailments, what is our approach to that? We make concessions for corporate, but will consumers get benefit? Is there any provision in the Budget that you can say will increase employment opportunities?" he said.
Referring to Prime Minister Narendra Modi's remark on four groups -- women, youth, farmers and the poor -- being important, he said, "India has the highest number of youth, and also highest unemployment. What have you done?"
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