The Samajwadi Party and the BSP slammed the Union Budget questioning absence of any pro-poor measure in the budged outlined by Finance Minister Arun Jaitley in Parliament on Thursday.
BSP supremo Mayawati slammed the Budget for ignoring the poor and the price rise. “The BJP’s Budget has sold many dreams for the poor, Dalits, backward classes and small traders, and has only made many announcements. No allocations have been made. Only token relief has been given, such as Rs50 crore or Rs100 crore. For instance, affordable housing for the poor and toilets for girls are to be built by 2022. But why has the Government not said how many of these will be built this yearIJ” she said.
Reacting strongly to the Rs200-crore allocation for the Sardar Patel Statue in Gujarat, she said this exposes BJP’s double standards. “When we built a memorial for the Father of the Constitution, BR Ambedkar, and his follower Kanshi Ram, they said it was misuse of taxpayer money. What about thisIJ” she questioned.
The SP said the Union Budget has “highly disappointed” the people who were expecting that the BJP-led Government would usher in ‘achchhe din’.
“Crores of people who were expecting ‘achchhe din’ from the General Budget are highly disappointed. The Finance Minister has indicated to the people not to expect good days in the next three to four years,” SP’s Uttar Pradesh spokesman Rajendra Chaudhary.Calling the Budget ‘directionless’, Aam Aadmi Party chief Arvind Kejriwal said there is nothing new in it. “The Budget is directionless,” said Kejriwal.
“For the last one year, the BJP and Narendra Modi had made several promises to the people if they are voted to power. So, people had hopes that something big is going to happen today. But, there was nothing in the Budget that was presented,” he added.
But BJD leader Baijayant Panda gave a “cautious thumbs up” to the Budget saying that, “under the prevailing circumstances, the Finance Minister has handled it well, particularly the infrastructure sector, the thrust on Pradhan Mantri Gram Sadak Yojana and rural development, like drinking water schemes.