New Delhi : The interim Union budget 2024 presented by Union Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman on Thursday was just a 'Modi development model, enriching the rich by squeezing the poor', the Communist Party of India (Marxist) said on Thursday. "This interim budget totally exposes the hollowness of the bombastic claims of the Modi propaganda machine of `real social justice’ incorporating working people as `partners in growth,`etc," it said.
Targeting the Modi government for its hollow claims of social justice and economic equality, CPM in its statement said that "despite the tall claims made by the Finance Minister about the state of India’s economy, the interim Union Budget for 2024-25 reveals the grim economic situation confronting India’s working people and the vicious face of the Modi government’s conception of ‘development’ which is designed to make the rich richer and the poor poorer."
"Expenditures on several items like Agriculture & Allied Activities, Education, Health, Social Welfare, and schemes like the PM Krishi Sinchai Yojna and Umbrella Schemes for SCs, STs and other groups have been kept below budgeted levels", it said.
It further added that "The revised expenditures on PM Awas Yojna, PM Gram Sadak Yojna, and PM Poshan are not only lower than budgeted, they are even less than the expenditures in 2022-'23. Schemes specifically for women and children have also seen a reduction on both counts. This lower spending in 2023-'24 than in 2022-'23 has also encompassed heads that include Fertilizer and Food Subsidies, MNREGA and Urban Development. Food subsidies have seen a cut of Rs. 60,470 crores between 2022-'23 and 2023-'24 while fertilizer subsides have come down by Rs. 62,445 crores."
The expenditure on MNREGA in 2023-'24 was Rs. 4,806 crores less than in the previous year, the CPM said. Rural Development expenditures and Transfers to States have remained virtually stagnant, implying a cut in real terms and the states are further squeezed as the loans given for capital expenditures are of a much lower amount than the loans given earlier in lieu of GST compensation, it added.
Meanwhile, talking to ETV Bharat, senior CPM leader Hannan Mollah said that "The claims made by the government are hollow and has no basis. This budget is for the corporates and industrialists and not for the ordinary people."
"The government says that their policies and this budget will address the issues of farmers and the poor. But on the contrary, this budget is for the corporates who are keen to take over the agriculture sector. The government says that they have brought out 250 million people out of poverty in the last 10 years, then why over 80 crore people are taking free rations", the CPM leader asked.
