Kohima: The Rising People’s Party (RPP), on Monday criticised the recently passed 2024-25 budget in the Nagaland Legislative Assembly (NLA), labeling it as lacking in imagination and essentially a “con job”.
In a scathing statement, the RPP said that the the NDPP Media and Communication Committee’s description of the budget as ‘visionary’ makes “any sane person wonder if there’s any limit to sycophancy and stupidity”.
The RPP particularly took issue with the NDPP’s characterisation of the budget, highlighting discrepancies between state and central government initiatives.
The political party pointed out instances where funds allocated under centrally sponsored schemes, such as SASCI and FHTC, as well as donations from external sources like the government of Japan and the FORTIS Group, Delhi, were inaccurately conflated with state budgetary allocations.
Furthermore, the RPP questioned the inclusion of projects like the hosting of Khelo India University games in the state within the budget, arguing that such endeavors were not directly tied to state budgetary planning and were initiatives primarily driven by the central government.
“Pray what’s the connection between hosting Khelo India University games in the state with the state budget? Khelo India Games was hosted before the budget was passed. Secondly Khelo India is the initiative of the central government. Thirdly budget passed by the governments are future oriented, probable expenditures and incomes for the coming financial year. So the Chief Minister took credit for the games held in the past for which the state government did not incur even a single expenditure and the NDPP Media and Communication Committee had the audacity to term the budget visionary,” the party said.
The RPP accused the Chief Minister of disingenuously presenting past and ongoing developmental works sponsored by the central government and private agencies as state government initiatives for the future.
RPP highlighted instances where existing projects, such as the block making unit at Wazeho cement factory, were portrayed as new initiatives in the budget.
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Critically, the RPP lamented the budget’s neglect of key sectors, including support for the common man, sports persons, entrepreneurs, elderly, and farmers.
The RPP likened the budget’s contents to a mere copy-paste from the Union Finance Minister’s budget speech saying, “Basically, going through the state budget one gets the feeling that it’s copy-pasted straight from Nirmala Sitharaman’s budget speech”.
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