New Delhi, January 31 (PTI): The Congress on Monday said the President's address to the joint sitting of Parliament at the start of the Budget Session was about the "failures" of the BJP government in fulfilling the promises made so far.
Leader of Opposition in the Rajya Sabha Mallikarjun Kharge said the government had promised to construct four crore houses for the poor and double farmers' income by 2022 but has done nothing about implementing these pledges.
He claimed President Ram Nath Kovind's address has no new thought and is a repeat of the promises that Prime Minister Narendra Modi had made.
"Whatever they said have not been fulfilled. What Modi Ji has been saying outside, the President repeated those in his address. There is no important issue in the President's address today and there is no thought too. The President's address is a speech of the government's failure," Kharge told reporters.
"The prime minister had made many promises through the President in his address earlier, but none of them has been fulfilled. The government had promised to provide more job opportunities. Thirty-two lakh posts are vacant in the government, but it has not spoken about it," the senior Congress leader said.
Later, in a Twitter post, he said, "What happened to two crore new jobs per year? Why are vacancies in government jobs not filled? What happened to four crore houses promised to be built? Why hasn't farmers income doubled? Tomorrow, 'Hum Do' will deliver yet another budget suited for 'Humare Do' and not for 'Humare Youth'."
Another Congress leader Manish Tewari said the President has not uttered a word about China, Pakistan or the terror implications due to the Taliban takeover of Afghanistan and neither has the government apologised for any deaths due to COVID-19.
"President's Address: Not a word on CHINA/PAK/Two-front situation. No regret on the massacre of civilians in Nagaland. No announcement on restoring the statehood of Jammu and Kashmir.
"Taliban take over of Afghanistan its terror implications on India obfuscated. No apology for deaths in second Covid wave," Tewari said on Twitter.
Kharge said the youth are craving for jobs and are fighting for it, and alleged there has been a big scam in this matter.
"They had promised to build four crore houses for the poor by 2022 but provided for only two crore houses. The government had also promised to double farmers' income by 2022, but the government has fulfilled neither of these promises," he said.
Kharge alleged the government has not done anything on its promise to bring labour codes while against the promised Rs 16,000 crore in scholarship to the scheduled castes and scheduled tribes, only Rs 300 has been provided so far.
President Kovind on Monday said his government's policies have given top priority to the poor and marginalised sections of the society while highlighting the Covid response, record procurement of farm produce and improvement in internal security as "collective achievements" of the billion-plus citizens.
In his 50-minute address, he spoke of various government initiatives, especially those related to election-going states such as the inauguration of a memorial to warriors of Goa's liberation, steps taken to empower farmers and the return of two swaroops of Guru Granth Sahib from strife-torn Afghanistan to India.
Disclaimer: This story is auto-generated from news agency feeds and has not been edited by The Morung Express.
Source: PTI
