Mokokchung Times News | Dimapur | February 1
Sujata Paul, AICC media coordinator, slammed the union budget as “useless” during a press conference today in Dimapur.
“It is a budget that will mislead the people of this country and especially for the people of Nagaland it is really sad that this budget has nothing,” she remarked.
“When we talk about the DoNER funds for instance, the DoNER funds are always going to come. It is a huge misconception that the union budget has anything to do with the DoNER,” she added.
“The DoNER is a separate department, has a separate minister and it is required on the centre to provide funds to the North East that means, a majority of that money should be dispersed evenly. But the money never gets here; I have no idea where it goes,” she continued.
Paul then questioned the Rio government’s slogans of “change is coming” and “election for solution,” asking where the change is today.
“Today, the union budget came out with the “fantastic fanfare filled budget” since that was clearly an election budget,” she claimed, adding, “But what have the three states going into election, including Nagaland, got? Nothing!”
She highlighted how in the budget they have spoken about ‘har ghar nal’ and added, “In Nagaland, in one Basti, if there is one nal, we should be thankful; drinking water is in scarce supply. The wealthy can afford tube wells, but what about the poor? Is there anything for the poor?” she inquired.
Paul also questioned the lowering of MGNREGA funds from Rs 89,000 crore to Rs 60,000 crore and alleged that the government does not care.
“This is a government that does not care, and Nagaland has a government that does not care either,” she stated.
“From 2004 to 2014, every Indian’s per capita income increased by 13.1%, but from 2014 to 23, it only increased by 9.1%,” she added, adding that the government has failed the people of Nagaland today.
Paul went on to question Jacob Zhimomi, Minister of Public Health Engineering Department, on why schools in his areas lacked walls and windows.
“Schools in Jacob constituencies… have no walls, no windows, forget about the computers mentioned in the ASER report, forget about water, there aren’t even taps,” she remarked, adding that Jacob is speaking in the same manner as the BJP government at the centre.