RSS affiliates want Budget to focus on jobs, self-reliance

Indicating concern over the issue of unemployment and seeking focus on employment generation, representatives of organisations affiliated to the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS) have conveyed their expectations from the Budget to the Narendra Modi government.

According to sources, representatives of RSS wings, including Swadeshi Jagran Manch (SJM), Bharatiya Kisan Sangh (BKS), Bharatiya Mazdoor Sangh (BMS) and Laghu Udyog Bharati (LUB), also met Union Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman on June 15 for a pre-Budget meeting. The General Budget will be presented in Parliament on July 5.

BKS has suggested that agriculture inputs be exempted from GST and asked the government to frame a uniform policy to make agriculture loans friendly for farmers. Speaking to The Indian Express, BKS national organisation secretary Dinesh Kulkarni said, “The government in its previous term had taken up the issue of strengthening 22,000 local markets. A review of that should be done because effective execution is not visible on the ground.”

BKS is also against the increase in import of pulses and demanded that the government should cancel plans of increasing imports. “Presently we import two lakh tonnes of pulses and there were talks to increase it to four lakh tonnes. BKS has the view that we should wait for monsoon. Hopefully production will improve,” Kulkarni said.

SJM focused on employment generation and promotion of domestic products, besides demanding provisions in the budget towards making the atmosphere favourable for small industries. It has also asked that the government should implement schemes for job creation in rural areas.

The BMS has expressed concern over lack of increase in wages in proportion to industrial growth, saying that creation of jobs without quality has lowered per capita wage in the country.

Jitendra Gupt, national president of LUB, sought measures to create an atmosphere for self-employment and self-reliance.