Budget has left people exasperated: O. Panneerselvam

‘It has exposed the DMK, which made false promises despite knowing the situation’

AIADMK coordinator and former Chief Minister O. Panneerselvam said on Saturday that the DMK’s first Budget had left people “exasperated”, instead of “showing them the dawn”. In a statement, Mr. Panneerselvam said the Budget had exposed the position of the DMK, which had made “false promises” to people despite knowing the fiscal situation. Allocations for various Departments had been lowered in the revised estimates for 2021-22. Pointing out that the amount of food subsidy had been reduced from ₹9,604.27 crore to ₹8,437.57 crore amid reports of about 4.5 lakh new ration cards having been issued in the last three months, the former Finance Minister said people had begun having doubts whether a section of the beneficiaries under the public distribution system would be left out. There was no announcement on the provision of additional 1 kg of sugar and ‘urad dal’. The decision to defer the payment of dearness allowance to next year had disappointed government workers.