Unhappy, Left to move amendments

The Left parties, disappointed at being given a short shrift on their suggestions on the “social sector and issues affecting the common man” in the Union Budget, have hinted at moving amendments if the Government does not take corrective steps.

The Left parties, disappointed at being given a short shrift on their suggestions on the “social sector and issues affecting the common man” in the Union Budget, have hinted at moving amendments if the Government does not take corrective steps.

They also want the Finance Minister to substantially increase the outlay of the Eleventh Five-Year Plan to meet the “pro-people” commitments made in the National Common Minimum Programme. “We will move amendments to the Budget. We want correctives to be carried out by the government,” senior CPI(M) leader Sitaram Yechury told reporters.

In a statement, the Politburo said: “In sum, the Government has failed to deliver resources to warrant its rhetoric that the Budget serves the cause of a crisis-ridden peasantry, the working people and the poor.”

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The party said in the context of the inflationary crisis affecting the economy, Budget 2007-08 came as a “disappointment.” In the party’s view, the Finance Minister “has not exploited the many opportunities for additional resource mobilisation, especially by taxing the rich”.

“He (the Finance Minister) has kept expenditure increases under a tight leash while restructuring it in a way that goes against the interest of the working people and the state governments”, the Politburo said.

The party also felt there should have been some measures in the context of the agrarian crisis. “There is not one word on price support to farmers,” Yechury said.

“The expenditure on all rural employment schemes put together increased only by 3.5 per cent,” he said while pointing out that for the implementation of the National Rural Employment Guarantee Act in 200 districts, the allocation was Rs 11,300 crore, which had been hiked by only Rs 700 crore for an additional 130 districts.

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The CPI(M) said the Budget failed “seriously” to address the problems of unemployment and inflation.

Flaying the Budget, CPI leader Gurudas Dasgupta said the Budget was a “deplorable” exercise. “The Budget has failed to address the problem of farmers’ suicides or the plight of unorganised labour”, he added.

Dogfight over pet food

New Delhi: The Budget announcement on reducing customs duty on pet food has created a controversy that Finance Minister P Chidambaram did not bid for. “I have good news for cat and dog lovers. I propose to reduce duty on pet food from 30 per cent to 20 per cent,” he said in his budget speech. BJP leader Sushma Swaraj was the first one to comment: “Wonderful! Food for people is getting costly, but for dogs it’s getting cheaper.” As TV channels asked Union minister Jairam Ramesh about Left allegations that pet food will get cheaper than human food, he said: “Whichever Left leader has told you should start eating pet food,” he said. Railway Minister Lalu Prasad also put in one of his oneliners: “Who keeps pets? Nobody in Bihar keeps all those costly dogs.”