Jaipur: The Congress on Monday interrupted chief minister Vasundhara Raje’s Budget speech demanding withdrawal of the controversial ‘gag’ bill that proposes to restrict judicial magistrates from taking cognisance against judges, magistrates and public servants without government approval.
Just as speaker Kailash Meghwal asked Raje to present the Budget, leader of Opposition Rameshwar Dudi rose to demand that the bill be withdrawn. The ruling party members objected to Dudi’s interruption and soon there was commotion in the House. Similar chaos was created when Dudi objected to Raje waiving farm loans with riders. Speaker Meghwal had to warn the opposition members to bring the house in order.
Talking to reporters after tabling the budget, chief minister Raje said, “We have tried to touch every aspect of farmers’ issues and moved on to infrastructure, students, young, old and divyang (specially-able persons), industry, education, health and social areas. We are happy that we still remained within the FRBM (Fiscal Responsibility and Budget Management) limits.”
She added, “Our next challenge is how fast we can get the budget announcements on ground.” When asked if there was any guarantee that the announcements would be implemented before the election code of conduct comes into place within next six months, Raje replied, “There is no guarantee except our normal conduct. Please do not compare us with the Congress. In our Suraj Sankalp, there were over 600 promises; we fulfilled almost 500 of them.”
Picking up from Raje’s remark, Congress state president Sachin Pilot later said, “When the CM candidly accepted there was no guarantee on implementing her announcements, what was the rationale behind raising Rajasthan’s debt from Rs 1.21 lakh crore to Rs 2.40 lakh crore in past four years?”
Targeting the CM on farm loans, Pilot said, “Just 20% farmers took loans from cooperative banks. What will happen to loans of 80% remaining farmers who go to private banks? Also, why this rider of waiving loans only up to Rs 50,000? One cannot get even a good breed buffalo with that amount.”
Pilot said, “Farmers loan amount in the state is estimated between Rs 70,000-cr and Rs 80,000-cr, whereas the government has provisioned for waving just Rs 8,000-cr loans.” On CM’s claim about providing jobs for 13 lakh people, the Congress leader said, “It is a ‘jumla’ (slogan). I do not know if BJP is counting people selling ‘pakoda’ among those whom it provided jobs.”
Ex-CM Ashok Gehlot said, “People have now decided to change the BJP government. They know the Budget announcements are a pretense, as these cannot be implemented in the remaining eight months of the government.” He added, “CM claimed about saving Rs 40,000-cr in renegotiated refinery deal but the truth is, just the interest-free loan amount has been reduced.”
Leader of opposition Rameshwar Dudi described the budget as nothing more than an ‘election rhetoric’. He said, “Though we welcome the announcement to waive off loans, our demand was for covering all farmers. We stand by that demand.” Dudi said the budget was silent on ‘Resurgent Rajasthan’. “What is the outcome of that hyped event, nobody knows. Till the investments reach the state, the employment for the youth will remain a distant dream,” he said.
