Whose budget is it anyway?

“Budget is all about big sums. My value as a citizen is zero to the government!”

Chand Ratan Haldar doesn’t try to hide his bitterness as he hears the words ‘ sarkari budget’. “What budget? Whose budget? It’s nothing but a big hoax!” The 53-year-old pulls a rickshaw in Jadavpur, Kolkata.

“After so many budgets and so many schemes we haven’t got a house from either didi [Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee] or [Prime Minister] Modi. I continue to live in a shanty made of tarpaulin and bamboo slips which has sunken almost a foot in the ground,” adds Chandu da whose hope in the union budget seems to have sunk even deeper.

A landless resident of Subhashgram town in West Bengal, he takes the early morning Sealdah-bound local train to reach Jadavpur where he works till late in the evening before heading back home. “Budgets come and go, along with our local trains. Coming to the city has become so hard now. What is the use of such a budget that kicks at our empty stomach?” he asks.

Chandu da, as he is fondly addressed by others around him, waits for passengers opposite Gate No 4 of Jadavpur University – once a bustling rickshaw line with more than 20 vehicles, but now desolate with just three rickshaws, including his. He earns between Rs. 300-500 a day.

“I have been working for more than four decades. My wife toils at someone’s home. We have married off our two daughters with so much hardships. Never done any wrong. Never stole a paisa nor did any fraud. We are still not able to manage two meals for ourselves. Do you think these talks about 7,10 or 12 lakh [rupees] would mean anything to us?” he says referring to the income tax exemption for incomes upto Rs. 12 lakh.

“Budget gives exemptions to people who earn huge sums of money. The government will not do anything to those who flee to foreign countries after borrowing crores from banks in the name of business. But, if a poor rickshaw puller like me is ever caught on the wrong road, our vehicle would be confiscated and we will be harassed if we don’t bribe the police,” he tells PARI.

On hearing the proposed budgetary measures in healthcare sector, Chandu da points out that people like him must stand in long lines and wait an entire day to access minimal healthcare. “Tell me, if I have to compromise my wage for visiting the hospital, what’s the use of the cheap medicine?” He points to one of his legs that has developed a tumour and says, “I don’t know how much I am going to suffer for it.”