Senior Samajwadi Party leader Lalji Verma termed the 2022-23 budget presented by the Bharatiya Janata Party government as a 'deceit', prompting Finance Minister Suresh Khanna to intervene and ask the opposition leader to get his facts corrected.
On May 26, the Yogi Adityanath government 2.0 presented its maiden budget with a focus on education, employment, empowerment of women and farmers besides law and order. The budget is seen as a masterstroke by the government towards realising the dream of achieving a $1-trillion economy for Uttar Pradesh. The Rs 6.15 lakh crore budget has a provision of Rs 39,181 crore for new schemes.
Finance Minister Suresh Khanna said that the current budget was bigger than the previous by Rs 65,249 crore.
Participating in the discussion on the budget in the UP Assembly, Lalji Verma said, "Like the budgets of the past five years, this too is a deceit. It is a budget which is misleading people. The government is terming it as the largest budget but it is far from reality. How much is this budget implemented on the ground is to be seen and only then the complete picture will emerge."
Verma also presented a year-wise date of previous budgets presented by the BJP government and claimed that the government failed to mobilise financial resources for financing schemes announced in the budget.
"If the supplementary budget is combined for 2021-22, then it comes to Rs 5.85 lakh crore. But, the amount spent was Rs 4.84 crore," he pointed out.
Verma, a former finance minister in the previous Bahujan Samaj Party government (2007-12), claimed that merely 45-70 per cent of the budget allocated to some departments could be spent.
"This is a hollow budget," Verma remarked.
Following this, Finance Minister Suresh Khanna intervened and asked Verma to get his facts right. Khanna said that if for 2021-2022, the supplementary budget was combined then it added up to Rs 5.66 lakh crore.
Speaking in support of the budget, Sidharth Nath Singh of the BJP termed the budget as “historic”.
"About 65-70 per cent people in Uttar Pradesh live in villages and if they are left out of the debate on the economy, then it is not good. After coming to power in 2017, the Yogi Adityanath government started One District, One Product scheme," he said.
Taking a jibe at the Samajwadi Party, Singh said, "To those who knew the art of making items using clay, you taught them illegal sand mining. In fact the budget is a 'masterstroke' and one in which care has been taken of every section."
Leader of Congress Legislature Party, Aradhana Mishra, said that the budget was built on the foundation of lies and at every step, people were being misguided.
"Every effort has been to mislead people. People are facing tough times due to inflation. People are feeling cheated. It is sad that the BJP government has been unable to fulfill the promises made during elections," Mishra said.
Leader of Suheldev Bhartiya Samaj Party (SBSP) Om Prakash Rajbhar accused the Yogi Adityanath government of ignoring the interests of Backward Classes and urged that a caste census be conducted.
Allies of the BJP, Apna Dal (Sonelal) and NISHAD Party, praised the budget, while Rashtriya Lok Dal, an ally of Samajwadi Party, said that it did not have any provision for farmers.