'Barrier for common man': Ex-CM Siddaramaiah criticises National Monetisation Pipeline

Former Karnataka Chief Minister Siddaramaiah on Tuesday flayed Prime Minister Narendra Modi over the National Monetisation Pipeline (NMP). He alleged that this policy was aimed at helping his crony friends. In a series of tweets, Siddaramaiah hit out at Modi and Union Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman for rolling out the National Monetisation Pipeline.

What were the claims made by Karnataka's leader of the opposition?

Ex-CM Siddaramaiah said the assets proposed in National Monetisation Pipeline are an important medium of communication and transportation of the common man. He accused PM Narendra Modi and Nirmala Sitharaman of completely destroying India''s economy and said that Indians were being betrayed in the name of Nationalism.

He excalimed, "It may take decades to strengthen our economy to what it was in 2014. This asset mega sale spree is a myopic solution for the problems created by them. Assets held by GoI were created out of taxes paid by the common man. How correct is it to sell assets to cronies who will charge a fee for the common man to access the same for which he paid for? This is like paying an entry fee to enter one's own house. Unfortunate!!

National Monetisation Pipeline

Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman launched the Centre’s National Monetisation Pipeline (NMP) on Monday, August 23. This is a four-year plan staked at Rs 6 lakh crores for monetising infrastructure assets across sectors from rail to road to power. A book on National Monetisation Pipeline was also released by the finance minister in the presence of NITI Aayog CEO Shri Amitabh Kant, Vice Chairman Dr. Rajiv Kumar, and secretaries of ministries whose assets would come under the monetisation pipeline.

During the implementation of the National Monetisation Pipeline plan in the previous year's budget, Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman iterated that the current budget was in line with the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic and the economy had a serious challenge.

She said that this challenge was taken as an opportunity for economic revival. Laying out this Rs. 6 lakh crore plan to monetize the assets and further use it to boost the infrastructure, Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman said, "This pipeline will only include brownfield assets owned by the government and will not include land assets of the government."