Hailing the NDA Government’s maiden budget presented in Parliament today by the Union Finance Minister Mr. Arun Jaitely, the Punjab Chief Minister Mr. Parkash Singh Badal described it as a “progressive, development-oriented and common-man friendly effort”.In a statement issued here, today the Chief Minister appreciated the pro-people provisions made in the Budget relating to strengthening of rural electrification, human resource development and infrastructure development, stringent control on non-productive expenditure besides initiating steps for the welfare of the weaker sections of society.While complimenting the Prime Minister, Mr. Narendra Modi and the Union Finance Minister, Mr. Arun Jaitley for presenting a growth-oriented budget, the Chief Minister said that it would help the country to emerge from the financial mess created by the previous UPA government. He said that though the UPA had handed over a trembling economy to the NDA, but the visionary budget presented by Mr. Jaitley would help a lot in ensuring the overall and balanced growth of the country.
Terming the Budget as a roadmap of New India, the Chief Minister said that it was development oriented besides being reflective of pro-people policies of the NDA government. He further said that the budget would certainly boost the tempo of all-round development of the country be it in the sector of Agriculture, Industry, Infra structure, Power, Education, Health besides empowering the women and weaker sections of the society. Mr Badal envisioned the current budget as a path breaking initiative taken by the NDA which would go a long way in setting new parameters of growth and development to take the country to a new zenith. “The budget clearly showcases the commitment of NDA to serve the weakest of the weak and poorest of the poor sections of society in the right earnest” added Mr. Badal.
The Chief Minister said that the pro-employee decisions taken in the budget would give much awaited relief to them. He mentioned that by increasing the IT exemption limit from Rs two lakh to Rs 2.50 lakh, PPF limit from existing Rs one lakh to Rs 1.50 lakh, exemption on interest of Home Loan from Rs 1.50 lakh to Rs 2 lakh were the few out of the box initiatives to bring cheers to the Millions of employees, who were overburdened with the sky rocketing inflation during the decade long spell of UPA regime. Likewise, Mr. Badal also appreciated the setting up of a Special fund of Rs 500 crore to tackle the problem of inflation besides fulfilling the long pending demand of the millions of ex-servicemen by granting them One Rank One Pension for which it has allocated Rs 1000 crore.
Welcoming the decision to set up Indian Institute of Management (IIM) in Punjab, the Chief Minister said that it would give the much needed impetus to the higher education in the state. Hailing the NDA Government’s commitment to sustain a growth of 4% in agriculture sector, he said that this would help in safeguarding the interests of the farmers besides ensuring the overall development of this major sector of the economy. Mr. Badal also said that the decision to set aside a sum of Rs 50 crores for the development of indigenous cattle breeds and an equal amount for starting a blue revolution in inland fisheries would help in promoting allied sectors of Dairying and Fishery thereby helping the farmers to supplement their income on one hand and encourage to go for persification of Agriculture on the other.
The Chief Minister, while welcoming the pro-farmer initiatives in budget, said that the decision to start “Pradhan Mantri Krishi Sinchayee Yojana” would immensely benefit the millions of farmers to avail irrigational facilities thereby contributing fairly towards national food security. Appreciating another decision of NDA government to start dedicated Kisan TV, for promoting the interests of the agriculture and allied sector, he said that in current era of technology it would help the farmers a lot by bringing awareness amongst them about the emerging technologies and latest techniques in agriculture practices. Mr. Badal also expressed his pleasure at the allocation of Rs 56 crores to set up 100 mobile soil testing laboratories across the county, which would immensely benefit the farmers adding that the scheme to launch soil health card for every farmer was a revolutionary step.