Chandigarh/Ludhiana: The ruling Aam Aadmi Party (AAP), Shiromani Akali Dal (SAD) once a alliance partner of the ruling BJP at Centre have strongly criticized the Union Budget 2025-26 presented by Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman as anti-Punjab and anti-farmer.
Apart from both political parties, budgetary allocation for health has come in a sharp criticism from Indian Doctors for Peace and Development (IDPD). Its Ludhiana-based president Dr Arun Mitra has termed it as a cruel joke. According to him, the allocation of meager 1.9 % increase in allocation falls hugely short of meeting people’s health needs.
Punjab Finance Minister Harpal Singh Cheema said the budget was focused on Bihar’s election, catering to the BJP’s political interests rather than addressing the needs of the nation.
He expressed his disappointment that none of the demands made by Punjab during the pre-budget meeting held in Jaisalmer (Rajasthan) on December 20, 2024, were met in the budget. So much so, the budget failed to mention the names of states other than belonging to the parties in alliance with BJP at Centre.
This highlighted the Prime Minister’s bias towards specific states, alleged Cheema.
In the pre-budget meeting, Punjab, as a border state, demanded a special industrial package for its five border districts along with Rs 1000 crore for strengthening police infrastructure along the 500 km hostile border with Pakistan.
Moreover, the long-standing demands for the Rajpura to Chandigarh railway line and Vande Bharat Rail services from Amritsar and Bathinda to Delhi were also ignored in the budget.
Meanwhile, former Punjab Deputy CM and SAD president Sukhbir Singh Badal asserted the agricultural economy had been put in peril in this budget by ignoring all the demands of farmers including providing a legal guarantee on MSP and waiving off farmer loans.
Though bitter political adversaries in the state, both Cheema and Badal on behalf of their parties reacted in similar tone. Both alleged Centre’s bias against Punjab. Like Cheema, Badal also alleged the budget concentrated on this year’s poll-bound states.
As Cheema alleged the budget has neglected the needs of different segments including farmers, industrialists and traders, Badal also found it unfortunate that the budget failed to address the need of inclusive development.
Talking about Minimum Support Price (MSP) guarantee, Finance Minister Cheema alleged the BJP-led central government harbored animosity towards Punjab. “It did not address the demand for a package to encourage crop diversification what to talk about the MSP guarantee,” he said.
On his part, the SAD leader termed it as unfortunate that the government had failed to earmark funds for ensuring MSP on all crops as per the assurance given by the Prime Minister Narendra Modi four years back.
Similarly, no funds were earmarked for a comprehensive farm loan waiver in view of the distress in agriculture sector. No attempt was even made to rework the PM Fasal Bima Yogna and earmark more funds for it so that farmers could derive benefit from the scheme, added Badal.
The senior SAD leader also accused the Centre of denying a special package for industry in the border zone in absence of any assurance on reopening of trade with Pakistan via Wagah – Attari border. The budget also ignored the demand of industry and trade to simplify and rationalize the GST collection.
According to Cheema, the State-Centre formula to resolve the issue of stubble burning presented in the pre-budget meeting has been ignored in the budget. Similarly, there was no mention of release RDF and NHM funds. No solution has been provided for the annual loss of Rs 800 to Rs 1200 crore due to high rate of interest on the Cash Credit Limit (CCL).
Also the pre-budget demand to increase remuneration of mid-day meal and anganwadi workers has not been met with, added the FM.
Both leaders also criticized the budget for having no allocation for the crop diversification to incentivize farmers to wean them away from paddy-wheat cycle.
Coming to the IDPD’s reaction, Dr. Mitra along with General Secretary Dr Shakeel Ur Rehman argued that 1.9 % increase in allocation for health was so small that it came to only Rs 673 per person out of the total population of the country. “This is a cruel joke with the people as we are among the lowest in the health indicators and our public health spending is also among the lowest in the world,” both said.
Though the Union FM said in the budget speech that number of seats in medical colleges would be increased but there was no mention of lack of adequate faculty, they added.
