Budget 2024: Congress Says Sitharaman Took A Leaf Out Of Party's Nyay Patra
Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman's 2024-25 budget includes an internship scheme for one crore youth, claimed to be inspired by the Congress party's manifesto.
Union Budget 2024-25: As Nirmala Sitharaman presented Union Budget 2024-25 on Tuesday, Congress leader Jairam Ramesh claimed the Finance Minister has borrowed the idea of launching the internship scheme to provide opportunities to one crore youth from his party's Lok Sabha poll manifesto. He also took a swipe at the government for not providing the Special Category Status to Andhra Pradesh, which is ruled by National Democratic Alliance (NDA) partner Telugu Desam Party (TDP).
"The Finance Minister has taken a leaf out of the INC's Nyay Patra 2024, with its internship program clearly modelled on the INC's proposed Apprenticeship Program that was called Pehli Naukri Pakki. However, in their trademark style, the scheme has been designed to grab headlines, with arbitrary targets (1 crore internships) rather than a programmatic guarantee for all diploma holders and graduates, like the Indian National Congress had envisioned," he said in a post on X.
While presenting the Budget, Sitharaman said an internship allowance of Rs 5,000 and one-time assistance of Rs 6,000 will be provided under the new scheme that aims to provide opportunities to one crore youth in top 500 companies over the next five years.
Noting that in 2018, Chandrababu Naidu quit the NDA because of "the non-biological" PM’s failure to grant Andhra Pradesh Special Category Status, Ramesh said, "Six years after the drama, at a time when the Government is reliant on his MPs for support, all he has managed to get is “special financial support” for Amravati."
"Why has it taken 10 years to announce that what was already committed to in the Andhra Pradesh Reorganisation Act, 2014 will be implemented?" he further asked.
The Finance Minister announced Rs 15,000 crore, with additional amounts for developments in Andhra Pradesh in future years. Presenting the Budget, she said, “Our government has made concerted efforts to fulfill the commitments in the Andhra Pradesh Reorganization Act.”
Senior Congress leader and former Finance Minister P Chidambaram also accused Sitharaman of adopting several scenes from the party's manifesto.
"I am glad to know that the Hon'ble FM has read the Congress Manifesto LS 2024 after the election results. I am happy she has virtually adopted the Employment-linked incentive (ELI) outlined on page 30 of the Congress Manifesto. I am also happy that she has introduced the Apprenticeship scheme along with an allowance to every apprentice spelt out on page 11 of the Congress Manifesto. I wish the FM had copied some other ideas in the Congress Manifesto. I shall shortly list the missed opportunities," he said.
Sitharaman in her budget speech announced three employment-linked incentive schemes in a bid to push employment in manufacturing and other formal sectors of the economy. According to FM, the government will implement three schemes as part of the Prime Minister’s Budget package.
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