UPA government suffering from credibility crisis : Aruj Jaitley
New Delhi: Attacking the UPA government for “corruption cases and policy paralysis” under its rule, Leader of Opposition Arun Jaitley said there was a “credibility crisis” in the government. He criticised the slow growth in the power, telecom and the highways sectors.
The BJP leader said the Prime Minister and his cabinet have the collective responsibility of running the nation and there cannot be an advisory council over it whose decisions are bound to be followed by the ministries of the Government. “This weakens the government and this impacts its functioning,” he said.
Commenting on the investment atmosphere, Jaitley said not only foreigners but Indians are also now feeling that “India is not a place to invest. If we do not reverse this process, we will be left behind in the fight against poverty.” He said there was a “slow down” in power, highways and telecom sectors, which were the success stories of the NDA government and the liberalisation policies adopted in 1990s.
“The power sector has suffered because of corruption in allocation of coal mines. Why the National Highway Development programme has slowed down,” the BJP leader asked. Jaitley said the policies of the NDA government led the tele-density in the country to grow from 0.8 percent to 70 percent but today the situation is such that “no one is willing to buy spectrum”.
He said the Prime Minister should “assert” himself more as projects worth Rs seven lakh crore are “tangled” in controversies between different ministries. On the terming of direct cash transfer scheme as a game changer by Chowdhary, the Leader of Opposition said it was good as money would be provided directly to the needy.
He, however, questioned the allocation of only Rs 5,600 crore for the 26 projects covered under the scheme saying nothing much was done in this budget by the Government. Attacking the Finance Minister, Jaitley said the Government wants to bring in financial discipline through its budget in which Rs 93,000 crore have been cut for social sector schemes.
