The discussion on the Union Budget 2024-25, presented on July 23, will continue in both Houses of Parliament on Thursday. The discussion on Budget of Jammu and Kashmir, 2024-25, which was also presented on Tuesday, will also continue today. Union Minister Gajendra Singh Shekhawat, Jitendra Singh, Arjun Ram Meghwal and Kirtivardhan Singh will lay papers on the table today.

Union Minister Sukanta Majumdar is likely to make a statement regarding status of implementation of recommendations and observations contained in the 250th report of the department-related parliamentary standing committee on Home Affairs on action taken by the government on the recommendations and observations contained in the 243rd report of the committee on demands for grants (2023-24) of the Ministry of Development of North Eastern Region.

Both Houses of Parliament took up discussion on the Union Budget 2024 on July 24, with opposition parties accusing it of being “discriminatory” to most states and lacking vision. The discussion was initiated by former Finance Minister and Congress MP P Chidambaram in Rajya Sabha and Congress MP Kumari Selja initiated the discussion in Lok Sabha.

Raising four major challenges, Chidambaram said the most significant challenge is unemployment and data released by the Centre for Monitoring Indian Economy (CMIE) indicates that the unemployment rate for June 2024 is 9.2 per cent.

Chidambaram emphasised that the primary challenge for the economy is creating sufficient employment opportunities. He pointed out that the budget’s announcement of the employment-linked incentives (ELI) scheme suggests that the Production Linked Incentives (PLI) scheme is not generating the expected employment. He urged the finance minister to disclose the number of jobs created by the PLI scheme.

Radha Mohan Das Aggarwal of the BJP highlighted the achievements made by the government led by Prime Minister Narendra Modi in the last ten years. He said the Jan Dhan Yojana has provided banking services to crores of people in the country.

Biplab Kumar Deb of the BJP said the Economic Survey has estimated real GDP growth of 6.5 per cent to 7 per cent in 2024-25. He highlighted the provisions in the budget for various sections, including farmers and the education sector.

Trinamool Congress MP Abhishek Banerjee launched a strong attack on the Modi government, alleging that the Union Budget lacks clarity or vision, that it has been rolled out to satisfy the coalition partners of the BJP and that it “was planned by two individuals to keep another two in good faith.” The budget session of Parliament began on July 22 and, according to schedule, will end on August 12. (ANI)