Trashing the Union Budget for 2019-20 as a ‘Jumla budget’ of the Modi government, Punjab Chief Minister Captain Amarinder on Friday described it as hogwash, with nothing for the farmers and youth, while putting more burden on the common man. Reacting to the last budget of the ‘Jumla sarkar’, the Chief Minister said it was an election-centric budget aimed at misleading the people with false promises, which were not backed by numbers.

Though ostensibly a populist budget, it was a typical budget of a government on its last legs, with nothing except fake promises for the people of India, said Captain Amarinder, rejecting it as all fluff and no action.

The Chief Minister termed the Rs 6000 a year announced for marginal farmers as mere peanuts. With just Rs 500 a month for the distressed farmers, the Modi government had made it obvious that they did not recognise the gravity of the problem, said Captain Amarinder, dubbing the exercise as a mockery of the interests of the farming community.

“They had promised Rs 15 lakhs in accounts of all but have ended up giving only Rs 6000 a year to farmers up to 2 hectares of land, and that too at the end of their tenure, clearly showing their lack of intent to do anything for the farmers’ welfare,” the Chief Minister said.

Even the MSP of 50% above the production cost was nothing but an eyewash as the government was not buying all the items on the list, he said, pointing out that while Maize had an MSP it was not being bought by the government, forcing the farmers to sell it at an abominably low cost.

With inputs from Republic World