हिंदी
(Demands funds be allocated to make MSP on all 22 crops a reality besides revival of the MSME sector)
Chandigarh, March 24, 2025
Bathinda MP Harsimrat Kaur Badal today said the union budget had discriminated against Punjab and demanded that funds be allocated to make MSP on all 22 crops a reality besides reviving the MSME sector.
In an erudite address in parliament, Mrs Harsimrat Badal said it was shocking that Punjab had ranked among the lowest in the Niti Aayog’s fiscal health index with a score of 10.7 per cent against the leader Orissa’s score of 67.8 percent. She said while the present Aam Aadmi Party government and the previous Congress governments were responsible for this turn of events, no effort had been taken in the union government to support the State.
Mrs Harsimrat Badal also spoke on the plight of the unemployed. She said the percentage of unemployed youth with secondary and higher education had increased from 35 per cent in 2002 to 65 per cent in 2022. She also highlighted how the government had not come up with any strategy to tackle lays off due to increased computerisation and artificial intelligence.
The Bathinda MP also focussed on how the MSME sector, which was responsible for 30 per cent of the country’s GDP and for 50 per cent of the total exports, had got a raw deal. She said instead of making the credit linked capital subsidy scheme more liberal, the same had been discontinued. She also detailed how the reduction of import duty on bicycles from 35 per cent to 20 per cent would make the bicycle industry vulnerable.
Mrs Badal also demanded the union government give an assurance that it would not cave in to pressure from the United States government which was demanding the agriculture sector be opened. “Our farmers will be hit if indiscriminate imports are allowed in this sector”, she added.
