The Congress on Tuesday alleged that Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman has taken a leaf out of the party’s apprentice scheme as proposed in their Nyay Patra, but the Government managed to design it in their ‘trademark style’ to grab headlines.
On his social media handle X, party spokesperson Jairam Ramesh said, “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,” Ramesh said.
He accused that the Government through the Budget “seems to have finally come around to tacitly admitting that mass unemployment is a national crisis that requires urgent attention”.
Ramesh said, “It’s far too late, and as it turns out, far too little – the Budget speech is more focused on posturing than action”.
The Rajya Sabha MP said that in 2018, the ties between TDP and NDA snapped as the Prime Minister failed to grant Andhra Pradesh Special Category Status, but “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.
He also slammed the Budget alleging that the “Finance Minister’s announcement on Data and Statistics makes no mention of releasing funds for the decadal population census that was supposed to have taken place in 2021, but has still not been conducted. This is the first time since Independence that the Government has failed to conduct a Census on time”.
He alleged that the Budget had excluded the 10-12 crore individuals from the National Food Security Act ambit.
“It also means that the Government will likely continue to avoid a Socio-Economic Caste Census, despite calls from its own NDA partners for the same,” Ramesh said.
