The state budget is a ray of hope for common people if what the cross section of the people say is any indication.
Talking to Assam Times a day after chief minister Tarun Gogoi tabled it in the Assam Assembly various organizations and individuals and business chambers welcomed the budget saying it a step in right direction.
Doctors at the hospitals have hoped that it would give a good dose o relief for the cancer patients after the budget proposed to scrap VAT on cancer medicines and Oxygen.
“It is a good relief for the cancer patience. It will help us afford more medicine,” said Jatin Saikia whose father has been undergoing cancer treatment at the B Barooah Cancer Institute in Guwahati.
The budget seems to have rekindled hopes of the small tea growers whose have been desperately trying to survive in the face of slumps in the market.
“We won’t believe in promises. Let the government set up mini factory first. If the government really implements the promise it would be a giant leap towards the industry,” said Ranjan Saikia who has been a leader of a small tea growers association in Sivasagar.
The women, particularly, in the rural have every reasons to celebrate. The budget has proposed financial assistance to the self help groups apart from some other benefit. “It is not a small help. This assistance, if we receive, would help us a lot to make us self sufficient. This was what we have been demanding for the last few years,” said Dipali Buragohain, a member of self help group in Jorhat.
Rupkanta Phukan from Golaghat told Assam Times that the government doles out lots of promises in every budget. But, mostly, remain unimplemented.
“But I think the assembly polls are nearing. That’s why, only implementation would matter this year. Otherwise, the party would have to pay heavy price of these false hopes ad promises,” said Phukan who teaches economics at a local college in the town.
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