Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis lauds, Opposition criticises interim budget

While Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis lauded the interim budget as determination of keeping the state on uninterrupted progress path, Opposition has criticised the interim budget as betrayal of every section of society.

Chief Minister Fadnavis has said that this budget has provided for welfare schemes for every section including agriculture, irrigation, health, women and child development as well as housing for all. He said that all the sections of society be it farmer, women, laborers, children, downtrodden are taken care of in this budget.

Leader of Opposition in state assembly Radhakrishna Vikhe-Patil has criticised the budget by saying that it is nothing but an exercise to bring a sense of despair for farmers in the state. He said that as it is, the farmers are hit with drought situation and instead of providing any relief to farmers, this Government has put the farmers in more trouble by not announcing any measure to address their distress.

Vikhe-Patil said that out of total allocation in last year's budget, all the Government departments received only 65 per cent of it and actual expenditure is much less than the availed money. He said that the allocation for social sector is reduced by fifty percent and the announcement of mega-recruitment in last budget is proved to be hollow since not a single Government is filled up in last one year. Vikhe-Patil said that this Government in last four years has not been able to execute a single brick worth work for Dr Babasaheb Ambedkar memorial or Chhatrapati Shivaji Maharaj memorial.

Congress state unit president Ashok Chavan has said that there is no concrete provision on loan waiver of farmers in this budget and budget has betrayed every section of society. Chavan said that revenue deficit has increased and allocation on infrastructure is also reduced. Chavan said that this budget is nothing but yet another package of announcements without implementation.

Leader of opposition in legislative council, Dhananjay Munde said that this is not budget but a document full of meaningless announcements. He said that when the state is facing fear, inequalities at all the levels, finance minister is busy painting a rosy picture. Munde said that when the employment is decreasing at National level, how can finance minister claim to have provided employment to 2 million youth? He said that Finance Minister is misleading with this employment claim.

Finance Minister Mungantiwar however said that the financial health of the state is in good condition. He said that debt to GSDP ratio has come down to 14.5 which had gone up to above 28 during Congress-NCP rule. He said that the Opposition is criticizing the budget with political motive and is not coming clean on figures as well as logic.