Budget 2019: \'Rs 17 per day to farmers is an insult\'\, says Rahul Gandhi

Budget 2019: 'Rs 17 per day to farmers is an insult', says Rahul Gandhi

New Delhi, Feb 01: Congress President Rahul Gandhi on February targeted Prime Minister Narendra Modi over annual income support of Rs 6,000 for small and medium farmers.

Responding to the Budget 2019-20 presented by Finance Minister Piyush Goyal, Rahul Gandhi wrote on Twitter,, Gandhi said that giving Rs 17 per day to farmers is "an insult to everything that they stand for".

While proposing the Interim Budget in Parliament on earlier in the day, Interim Finance Minister Piyush Goyal rolled out the Pradhan Mantri Kisan Samman Nidhi scheme which would give direct income support of Rs 6,000 per annum to farmers who own less than two hectares of land.

Goyal said the scheme will be rolled out starting December 1, 2018 and that the amount will be transferred directly into the banks of beneficiary farmers in three installments of Rs 2,000 each. This means, the first installment is likely to reach the beneficiaries before the Lok Sabha elections.

Goyal said an additional Rs 20,000 crore would be earmarked for the current fiscal year under PM Kisan scheme. He said the assistance to the farmers would be given in three instalments in a year. He said assistance of Rs 2,000 would be directly transferred to the bank accounts of the farmers in the remaining four months (since December 2018) of the fiscal year.

Gandhi's sentiment was reiterated by other Opposition leaders who called these sops "election jumlas". All India Trinamool Congress supremo and West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee termed the Interim Budget as the BJP's desperation.