Modi govt’s claims on GDP growth is false, says Congress

Jamshedpur: Congress on Monday accused Prime Minister Narendra Modi of misleading the country by disseminating incorrect information pertaining to expenditure and investment on welfare schemes and development projects.

Countering BJP’s claims of constructing National Highway (NH) roads at a relatively rapid pace than the previous UPA government, Congress national spokesperson Ajay Kumar said, “In reality, Modi government has declared the fully completed 6,000km road of state highway as NH and announced that 11.5km road of NH is being constructed every day in his regime.” PM Modi said the average rate of NH road construction in UPA regime was 7.5 km, Kumar added.

The Congress leader also said the NDA government’s claim of achieving over 7 percent GDP growth in 2016-17 is beyond comprehension.

“When manufacturing, mining, agriculture and exports are showing a negative trend, how can the GDP growth be 7 percent when only a quarter (of the present fiscal year) is left to finish,” Kumar said, adding that no one is believing Finance Minister Arun Jaitley’s claims on the growth figures.

Kumar, a former Parliamentarian, said the demonetisation step of the Modi government was aimed at benefiting the crony corporates and capitalists.

“In three months from now, the same corporates who have been pulled up by banks for accruing non-performing assets will receive millions of rupees as loan on lower interest rates, since the entire Rs 15 lakh crore is now back in the banks,” he said.

Discussing the effects of demonetisation, the Congress leader said, “According to data, manufacturing has recorded a 50 percent decline while the textile industry has recorded a loss of Rs 24,000 crore.”

The Congress spokesperson further claimed that over 70 lakh people, across business enterprises, were left jobless after the note ban.

Kumar said while the PM often spoke about working relentlessly for the prosperity of the people belonging to the scheduled caste (SC) and scheduled tribe (ST) community, however, the plan outlay for the ST and SC (in 2015-16 annual budget) was drastically trimmed.

“The 2014-15 plan outlay for SC and ST was Rs 44,000 crore and Rs 26,000 crore respectively whereas in the 2016-17 budget, the plan outlay for SC and ST is Rs 36,000 crore and Rs 19,000 crore, respectively,” he said.

Shifting his focus to the amendment made in the Chotanagpur Tenancy (CNT) and Santhal Pargana Tenancy (SPT) Acts by the Raghubar Das government, the Congress leader said the main attention was to loot the tribals by taking away their land.

“Once the nature of the land is made, commercial banks will approach the land owners for easy loans and ignorant tribals will take the loan and if one fails to repay the loan, banks will auction the land to corporates and capitalists,” Kumar said.