Pradesh Congress Committee President Jayadev Jena on Thursday termed the Union Budget as “visionless, mission-less and action-less”.
“It is not going to stimulate growth and development of the poor people at large. People of the State heard about a strong and vibrant India before this Government came to power. It is disappointing from the beginning,” Jena said.
Stating that the Union Government has raised the FDI slab in various sectors like defence and insurance, Jayadev said the NDA Government has turned to be a ‘Government of the FDI, by the FDI and for the FDI’.
BJP was opposing FDI during the UPA Government but it has now changed its stand completely, he said. Similarly, senior party leader and former PCC Chief Niranjan Patnaik said the budget is very disappointing for the backward States like Odisha.
“The BJP had promised to give special packages for backward States of the eastern India. It was expected that the Government would make provision of Rs 5,000 crore for the agriculture and irrigation sectors of Odisha. A total provision of Rs 1,000 crore has been made for development of the irrigation sector of the whole country. We will have Rs 5 crore or 10 crore as our share for the sector,” Patnaik said.
He said demands like special State status and establishment of a new Agricultural University in western Odisha have been fully ignored in the budget.
Patnaik, however, hailed the budget stating that provisions have been made to expedite pro-people projects like MGNREGS, NHRM, Sarva Siksha Abhiyan and Annapurna Yojana, which have over the years helped achieve development and prosperity in the country.