BJP's policy blunders causing economic failure: Chidambaram
New Delhi, June 11 : Former Finance Minister P. Chidambaram on Monday said the BJP government's "administrative incompetence" and "policy blunders" were responsible for the rising farm distress, unemployment and failure of economy.
"Farmers' despondency has turned into anger and they have come to streets to protest," the senior Congress leader told reporters here.
"The principal reasons are uneconomic price for farm produce and stagnant wages of farm labour. MSP (Minimum Support Price) is not adequate. Every farmer knows that the promise of MSP = Cost + 50 per cent is a 'jumla'," he said.
Chidambaram said the Reserve Bank of India's confidence survey stated that 48 per cent felt that the economic situation of the country had worsened in the last 12 months.
He said unemployment was rampant in the country, which was "far cry" from the Bharatiya Janata Party's promised two crore jobs a year.
Chidambaram questioned why the Labour Bureau Survey for October-December 2017 not yet released.
Chidambaram said demonetisation had caused the growth rate to decline from 8.2 per cent in 2015-16 to 6.7 per cent in 2017-18.
"The Tamil Nadu government has officially acknowledged that 50,000 MSME units were shut down in the state in 2017-18; 5,00,000 jobs were lost; and capital investment in the MSME sector declined by Rs 11,000 crore," he said.
A flawed Goods and Services Tax continues to haunt trade and business, he added.
Chidambaram said the social security laws and programmes have been neglected by the BJP-led central government.
"The Food Security Act has not been implemented. MGNREGA is no longer demand-driven, wage arrears have mounted. Crop Insurance covers barely 30 per cent of farmers, it is a windfall for insurers. Health Protection Scheme is another 'jumla'," he said.
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BJP MLC kept under 'digital arrest' for 90 minutes in UP's Sultanpur; case lodged
Sultanpur (UP) (PTI): A case was registered after BJP MLC Shailendra Singh was allegedly kept under "digital arrest" for about one-and-a-half hours here, police said on Thursday.
In his complaint, the member of legislative council (MLC) said he received a phone call from an unknown number on March 2, where the caller claimed to be an officer with the Mumbai Anti-Terrorism Squad (ATS) and alleged that Singh's bank account was being used for money laundering and other suspicious activities.
Singh reported that the caller told him that he had an account in Canara Bank.
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"I told them that I do not have any bank account outside Lucknow and Sultanpur. They kept me engaged on a video call for about one-and-a-half hours and asked me to lock myself inside a room and not speak to anyone," Singh said.
He alleged that the callers repeatedly sought details related to his Aadhaar card and bank accounts.
According to Singh, some of his associates grew suspicious and checked the phone number, and found that it was not linked to the Mumbai ATS but was registered in the name of a woman from Madhya Pradesh's Satna.
The callers allegedly disconnected the call when they sensed that their identity might be exposed.
Singh later lodged a complaint at the cyber police station in Sultanpur.
Cyber police station in-charge Akhanddev Mishra confirmed the incident and said the fraudsters had attempted to put the MLC under "digital arrest".
He said the police are tracking the phone numbers and IP addresses from which the calls were made.
