“A controversial #Budget2017 which is clueless, useless, baseless, missionless and actionless. Heartless,” Banerjee said in the first of a series of tweets against the document placed in the Lok Sabha by Union Finance Minister Arun Jaitley earlier in the day. Banerjee alleged that the government has lost all credibility and demanded the removal of all restrictions imposed on bank withdrawals post the November 8 demonetisation. “No roadmap for the country or the future from a government that has lost all its credibility.”
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All India Majlis-e-Ittehadul Muslimeen chief Asaduddin Owaisi said the budget is “very disappointing” for minorities. He said the budget looks hardly inspiring, with “nothing worthwhile for any section the society and for every sector of the economy”. The MP from Hyderabad pointed out that though minorities account for 20% of the country’s population, they were allocated only Rs4,515 crores in the budget which envisages total expenditure of Rs21,46,735 crores. The outlay for minorities comes to just 0.21 percent though they account for 20% of the population, he said.***
Both the ruling Left and the opposition Congress in Kerala yesterday dubbed the budget as “disappointing and lacklustre”. In a statement, Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan said there is nothing in the budget to redress the woes of demonetisation. “Kerala submitted a list as part of the pre-budget exercise but nothing was looked into. The co-operative banking sector had taken a beating on account of restrictions imposed due to demonetisation. We expected some relief in the co-operative banking sector but nothing has been done,” said Vijayan. State Congress president V M Sudheeran said the budget has nothing to cheer Kerala. “The long-standing demand for an All India Institute of Medical Sciences in our state has not materialised; likewise, railway needs of Kerala have also been left unattended,” he said. However, Jaitley has provided funds to the Spices Board, Tea Board, Rubber Board, Coffee Board, Cochin Shipyard.***
Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar and his ally Rashtriya Janata Dal chief Lalu Prasad yesterday said budget 2017-18 is “disappointing” for people, particularly the poor, farmers and youths. Both the Janata Dal (United) president and the RJD chief pointed out that the central government has failed to provide special packages to backward states such as Bihar as promised by Prime Minister Narendra Modi during the campaign for the state assembly polls in 2015. “The budget has disappointed the people. There is nothing that could speed up growth and development in the country. It is not going to help the common people, farmers and the youths,” Kumar told the media here. Lalu said it was a disappointing budget as there was no relief for the common people, who have been fighting for survival after demonetisation. “Why has the central government failed to inform how much employment it provided to youths last year as Modi had promised to bring in two crore jobs each year”.