Budget has nothing for NE: Pala

SHILLONG, July 23: Meghalaya Pradesh Congress Committee president, Vincent H Pala on Tuesday expressed unhappiness with the Union budget, stating that it lacks foresight for the Northeast.
“It’s not a good budget. The Non-Lapsable Central Pool of Resources is zero; the field area development is zero; special package for the Northeast is zero and ADB help is zero. In agriculture, marketing is zero, and power grid expansion is zero. Most of the things mentioned in the capital expenditure are very less,” Pala, a three-time former Lok Sabha member, said.
He said there has been no remarkable increase in the North East Special Infrastructure Development Scheme (NESIDS) which was sanctioned by the Centre to focus on projects relating to infrastructure creation concerning water supply, power, and connectivity.
According to him, the unemployment rate is very high at 9.2% which is the highest in history but the budget has nothing to address this issue.
“In education, around Rs 7,540 crore remained unspent. Health is very bad; there are not enough doctors and nurses and they could not spend Rs 1,735 crore from the budget,” Pala said.
He further said that the farmers were supposed to be given minimum support price but nothing was done in this regard. The budget finds no proper mention of it, he added.