Uddhav Thackeray slams Centre for overlooking Mumbai Infra, says Budget a disappointment for Maharashtra

Mumbai: Chief Minister Uddhav Thackeray on Saturday slammed the Centre for completely overlooking infrastructure needs of Mumbai. Reacting to the union budget for 2020-21 presented by Union Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman, he said that the budget has been a huge disappointment for Maharashtra. He termed the union budget as one which is in contradiction with the current economic situation of the country, leaving the youth, farmers and ordinary people of the country alone in a world of fantasy.

Huge disappointment for Maharashtra

The budget has done grave injustice to Mumbai and Maharashtra which is the country’s growth engine. The infrastructure development in Mumbai, the much needed budgetary support for Metro rail in Mumbai is not reflected in the budget. Suburban train services are the life line of the Mumbaikar’s, there is no mention of it and the development of the proposed railway lines in the budget. Apart from the old mentions of the Delhi-Mumbai Express Way and the Mumbai-Ahmedabad Bullet Train, the budget does not seem to have given any momentum to the railway development in the state.

Complete disregard for Mumbai

The Finance Minister has resolved to redevelop five Historical Sites in the country as “Iconic Site’s”. However, there is no mention of any site in culturally rich state of Maharashtra. This step-motherly attitude towards Maharashtra is prominently seen in this budget. While strengthening the international financial center in Gujarat, it shows a deliberate neglect of Mumbai which contributes most to the development of the country. This disappointment will always be there in the hearts of Mumbaikar’s and Maharashtra, remarked Chief Minister Uddhav Thackeray.

There are no concrete steps to provide employment

In the last few years, the central government implemented schemes like Start-up, Stand-up and Make in India. It was repeatedly said that a pro-industry atmosphere has been created atmosphere and red-tape has been eliminated. In this budget, the central government appears to have once again made that resolve. But there is meager funding for this. The provision for Skill India is inadequate. By 2030 India is going to be the country with a young population. There are no concrete measures to provide employment opportunities to this youth power. There is very little provision for the tourism sector which creates huge employment opportunities.

Just a pipedream for the farmer

The old idea of doubling the income of farmers was re-introduced in the budget. The promise to make the food giver into one who shall give energy has been shown to the farmer. The resolve to bring 15 lakh agricultural pumps of farmers to solar based, and the Centre says that it will shut down thermal power plants in order to reduce carbon emissions But it is not clear exactly how these things will ever be achieved. There is no clarity on how deficit in electricity generation will be met with turning off thermal power.

The agricultural sector has been in trouble for the past several years. In the budget, a 16 point program has been announced for the agriculture sector and a provision of Rs 2.83 lakh crore is being made available to the sector. Actually, this provision has been marginally increased as compared to last year. Therefore, there appears to be a contradiction between the resolution expressed in the budget and the financial provision for its achievement.

Insufficient provision for social sector

The budgetary provisions for the social sector are inadequate. Greater allocation for women and child development was expected considering the fact that they account for half of the country’s population. Even little seems to be done for the benefit of senior citizens and people with disabilities. The FM seems to have tried to protect the investors interests by providing insurance protection for deposit of up to Rs 5 lakh in banks.

The Chief Minister further said that the decision taken to sell-off stake-holding in IDBI and LIC, privatization of the railways reflects the fragileness of the economy of the country. Thackeray further said that the decision to make some government bonds available to foreigners has been taken in this budget, which is a cause for concern.

The central government aims to achieve a growth rate of 10 percent. In fact, the growth rate is expected to be around 5 percent in the current year and is expected to be 6 to 6.5 percent in 2020-21, according to the Central Economic Survey. This is the lowest growth rate of the last few years. This current growth rate does not have the capacity to fulfill Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s dream of a five million dollar economy. It is expected to be a major investment in infrastructure. But the in reality the budgetary allocations are very meager.

The Goods and Services Tax (GST) has given relief to the Medium and Small Enterprises (MSMEs) in the country. Although the FM has claimed that because of the GST household expenses have come down by 4 percent, this is far from reality. Due to the GST system, small and medium enterprises are facing huge problems. Due to rising inflation, people’s purchasing power is reduced, small industries are facing problems due to lack of demand for goods. Actually, the budget does not reflect any steps being taken to encourage setting up of labour intensive industries.