National Conference dubs FM a ‘Dream Merchant’, Tears into coalition’s Budget

Tearing into the “reformist” Budgetary proposals of the PDP-BJP coalition government, the National Conference today launched a blistering attack on Finance Minister Haseeb Drabu, dubbing him a “dream merchant” who lives in his own “world of illusions”.
Devender Singh Rana, NC MLA from Nagrota, tore into the coalition’s third Budget page by page as he repeatedly taunted the Finance Minister as the most “intelligent” person in the House who “sets new trends”.
In his 50-minute address, Rana minced no words in slamming the budgetary proposals as a “jugglery of words” that promised the moon to the people but in reality was “absolute lies”.
“In your budgetary proposals you have made a number of promises but you have dumped the promises which had made in the earlier two budgets in 2015 and 2016,” Rana alleged, adding that “you have betrayed the aspirations of the people by your anti-people Budget”.
Targeting the Finance Minister for living in “his own world of illusions”, Rana said Haseeb Drabu himself was not convinced of the Budget that he had presented.
On the proposal for replacing the present treasury system with Pay and Account Office (PAO) system, Rana said there was nothing new in the proposal. “Why you are claiming to be a trendsetter?” Rana said, adding that the PAO system had already been introduced in many parts of the country. “There is nothing new in the PAO system. Go to the internet and you will find the system has already been introduced in many states,” he said.
“You are merely a storyteller. You are sowing those seeds of thoughts which neither our soil is accepting nor our economy is allowing,” Rana said.