Reaction of HIMACHAL C M on Budget

By Bijender Sharma

DHARMSHALA---Prem Kumar Dhumal, Chief Minister, has termed the Union Budget Proposals for the year 2008-09 as anti poor, anti-employee, anti-exservicemen and anti hilly states. Reacting to the Union Budget Proposals for the next financial year he said that although it was the last budget of the UPA Government but all expectations of the people, especially of hilly people had been ignored. He said that the state had already been ignored in the Railway Budget and the same trend continued in the General Budget of the Union Government. Chief Minister said the Union Finance Minister did not honour even the announcements he made on behalf of the Prime Minister himself on 2n October, 2007, on launch of the AAm Admi Bima Yojna to open IIT in the state. He said that the state had raised many a times the issue of bringing apple produce and citrus fruits under the fold of crop insurance, and budget speech had no mention to the same. There was no compensation to the states, especially special category states, with regard to the financial burden likely to be put due to the implementation of the 6th Pay Commission Recommendations. He said that hilly states like Himachal Pradesh and Uttrakhand were the limbs of the country which were preserving the ecology by stopping green fellings to generate income to the state exchequer. He said such states deserved adequate compensation to maintain best environmental conditions, but budget provisions had no mention to the same. He said that state had demanded permission under the Constitutional provisions to levy generation tax for hydro power generation for long term exploitation of the natural wealth of the state, although the same had been recommended by Shri Pranab Mukherjee Committee, but the same had been ignored in the budget. He added that no policy had come forward to check the inflation and price rise of essential commodities which would effect the lower sections of the society badly. He further said that power reforms were bound to benefit only the multi-nationals and the hilly states had nothing to gain out of the same.
Prof. Dhumal said that the Special Industrial Package announced by the former Prime Minister, Shri Atal Behari Valpayee to Himachal and other special category states, upto the year 2013 did not find any mention, since the same had earlier been reduced to the year 2007 and then on repeated requests upto 2010 by the UPA Government itself. He added the Election Manifesto of the Congress Party had assured the ex-servicemen of the state One Rank One Pension, but the same had not been considered to so far. He said that the age of senior citizens was likely to be reduced from 65 years to 60 years but the budget proposals were silent over the same. Chief Minister criticized the UPA government for ignoring the interests of common man since there were hardly any relief to the majority of people of the country and called it the jugglery of the figures. He said that the budget indicated at further reduction of the Gross Domestic Product in coming years since no concrete programme was visible in the budget speech of the Union Finance Minister.