VIJAYPUR: Seeking immediate rollback of enhanced levies on various commodities and unjustified increase in the VAT, former Minister and Sr State Vice President National Conference Surjeet Singh Slathia on Friday described the Jammu and Kashmir Budget 2016-17 as directionless, anti-poor and avoidable burden on the people of the State.
“The immediate fallout of the budget has been strong resentment by the people in general and business community in particular, which has taken recourse to shutdown”, Slathia said while addressing workers at Bari Brahmana, adding that the PDP-BJP Government should not shut its ears and take cognisance of the feedback of the stakeholders for early corrective measures.
The former minister termed the budget as jugglery of words and numbers, saying this offers nothing to the common people as agriculture, power, tourism and other sectors have completely been ignored. He expressed dismay on government’s silence over regularisation of various categories of workers, especially those of the PHE, who are on continued strike, resulting in erratic water supply in most of the areas. “Budget has been just another gimmick of the visionless government, which has caused immense resentment among different segments of the society”, he added.
Slathia said that the budget has nothing concrete for industrial promotion, which holds key to enhancing productivity and generating employment for the educated unemployed besides skilled and unskilled work force. He said the government has failed in devising a mechanism to train unemployed youth as per needs of the job market.