The country's Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman on Monday presented the country's budget (Budget 2021). Prime Minister Narendra Modi said that in the midst of the Corona crisis, this is a budget to boost expectations. However, a section of the public has expressed some disappointment over the budget (Budget 2021). Minister of State for Finance Anurag Thakur, in an exclusive interview with Zee News editor-in-chief Sudhir Chaudhary spoke about the budget and the growing problem of fake news.
Anurag Thakur said, "Fake News has become a matter of concern in the country. I was the chairman of the IT committee of Parliament for 5 years. I called and talked to PCI and NBA many times. Most of the owners in both institutions are only the members. I called them up several times and said that if the owners are only the members of the two organizations, then who will take action against them. Should there be no accountability of the media? Digital media has also been added to this.
Anurag Thakur said, "Government cannot take action in this matter because the government gives everybody the freedom of expression. He said, "There should be reforms in these media institutions, this has to be done somewhere. If an MP wrongly tweets, doesn't even apologize, lives in arrogance, insults the President, then there will be talks on that too. I think this is a big question in front of the country, about which all people will have to think."
Anurag Thakur said that the Modi government has worked on a mantra from day one and that is 'jaan hai, toh jahan hai'. We also saved the country from COVID, and also slowly revived the economy. Here the death rate due to corona is the lowest in the world. After this, when the government brought 'Aatmnirbhar package', the economy returned to track. In the last 4 months, more than 1 lakh crore GST was recovered.
Talking about the peasant movement, Anurag Thakur said, 'We will prepare the infrastructure for the farmers. The UPA government gave 3 lakh 75 thousand crore rupees on MSP to the farmers, while the Modi government gave more than double, 8 lakh crore rupees to the farmers. The talk of closure of Agricultural Mandis (APMC) is a lie. In the last one year, 1 thousand APMC has been improved. They have been linked to digital platforms. This will double the income of farmers.
Anurag Thakur said that the budget of MNREGA was Rs 30,000 crore in the Congress government, we have increased it to Rs 73,000 crore. The Kisan Samman Nidhi was zero at the time of Congress. We have kept a budget of Rs 65,000 crores for that. The purchase of wheat increased by 73%, the purchase of paddy increased by 114%. Purchase centres were doubled. With the implementation of the three agricultural laws, the income of the farmers will double in the next 2-3 years. 1 lakh 10 thousand crore was distributed to 9 crore farmers of the country. Carried 50% of the cost of the farmers.