The annual budget presented by the Finance Minister is path-breaking and will lead the state to an unprecedented era of development, said Brig Anil Gupta State Spokesperson of BJP. The budget includes many points from the Vision Document released by the party before the elections. It validates the commitment of the alliance government to work in unison for the welfare of the people of the state and usher an era of holistic development to fulfil our vision for the planned development of the state. In order to conserve electricity, use of LED bulbs had been proposed in the document. In this budget, the Finance Minister has announced that street lights in two Municipal Corporations of Jammu and Srinagar and other municipalities across the state will be replaced in a phased manner with energy efficient smart LED lights. He has also made a provision of 64 crore for providing subsidised LED lamps to each registered consumer and also announced energy audit of government offices for implementing LED lighting, explained Brig Gupta.
Referring to the announcements regarding promotion of IT industry, debt waiver scheme for the house boat owners, bringing all genuinely affected families under the ambit of BPL, efficient functioning of police stations, empowerment of women and exemption of fee for all girl students in government run Institutions up to higher secondary level, Brig Gupta said that that all these issues had been included in the party’s Vision Document. Gupta exhorted the Finance Minister to waive off the tuition fee for girl students in the government Colleges as well. Brig Gupta profusely thanked the Finance Minister for reducing the tax to 5% from 13.5% on automobiles sold through CSD canteens to the members of the Armed Forces having Canteen Smart Cards. Brig Gupta saidthat with this gesture the PDP-BJP government has met the long pending demand of the soldiers both serving and retired while all previous governments only made false promises but failed to deliver. “ Dr. Drabu should take one more magnanimous step and extend this benefit to all goods sold through CSD Canteens to the entitled persons” urged Brig Gupta.
