New Delhi: The Congress on Wednesday termed the Narendra Modi government a “photo-op” regime and accused it of cutting funding for all social sector schemes.
“There has been a cut of Rs.1.8 lakh crore in social sector spending in the last one year,” Congress leader Jyotraditya Scindia said at a press conference here.
Scindia said while the backward region grant fund has seen a 100 percent cut, there has been a decrease of 25 percent in the midday meal scheme, 99 percent in the Panchayati Raj ministry and 55 percent in the Integrated Child Development Scheme (ICDS).
He said the Bharatiya Janata Party-led government at the Centre was just “a photo-op government”. “This is just a packaging and marketing sarkar.”
Scindia said the government has also cut the budget of the Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Scheme (MGNREGS).
As of now, Rs.13,000 crore funds were pending to be provided under the scheme, he said.
“The government’s only aim seems to be to ridding the country of farmers,” he said, adding that it was proved by the land acquisition bill and lack of compensation for farmers hit by unseasonal rains.
The government was also not providing any loan waiver for such farmers. “Their outlook for agriculture is reflected in the budget,” he said.
“The prime minister on one hand says that MGNREGS was not a productive scheme, but on the other hand, chief ministers belonging to his own party have asked for quick reimbursement of the NREGA funds.”
The Congress leader accused the government of reducing the contribution of central funds in the health and education sectors.
“For a country which still has 2.5 crore malnutritioned children what this means for the future, I don’t know,” he said.
Accusing the government of spreading lies, he said even the three main schemes launched by the government — the Atal Pension Scheme, Jan Dhan Yojana and Pradhan Mantri Jeevan Bima Yojana — have very low central contribution.