PATNA: The Budget speech by deputy CM and finance minister Sushil Kumar Modi in the state assembly on Tuesday set the NDA agenda of campaign for the assembly election scheduled in October-November this year.
Modi harped on 15 years of Lalu Prasad-Rabri Devi rule versus 15 years of Nitish Kumar-led NDA’s governance in the state. He highlighted the atrocities on Dalits with a special mention of mass massacres since 1990, before Nitish took the reins in 2005.
Reacting to the budget, the former principal of Patna College and retired professor of economics, Nawal Kishore Chaudhary, said, “It was a propaganda budget with little branding as green budget talking about environment and water resources.”
He told TOI: “The budget speech was like the government’s campaign manifesto. The state’s budget should be about the government’s vision and plans for the next fiscal. What is the purpose of enumerating the number of medical and polytechnic colleges when there are no teachers? The focus on Jal-Jeevan-Hariyali Mission is a welcome move, but it also reflects the government’s failure on water resources front. The budget lacks vision.”
Modi, in his speech dwelt at length on the NDA government’s achievements such as 35% reservation for women in state jobs, 15 medical colleges in 15 years and revival of dying boards and corporations as opposed to the lack of development during the Lalu-Rabri rule.
Former state finance minister and senior RJD leader Abdul Bari Siddiqui termed it as a “copy and paste budget”. He said the Nitish government has been trumpeting the increased budget allocations every year and compares that to pre-2005 state budgets, but the finance minister never reveals how much funds lapse every year.
“They don’t mention the budget of other developed states of the country in the pre-2005 period. They also don’t tell that the budget size has been increased due to more central assistance over the years, as has been the case with other states as well. The present budget has neither vision nor road map or even proper homework,” he told TOI.
While presenting the Rs2,11,761.49 crore budget, SuMo said it has increased eight times compared to Rs 23,885 crore in 2004- 05.
Modi harped on 15 years of Lalu Prasad-Rabri Devi rule versus 15 years of Nitish Kumar-led NDA’s governance in the state. He highlighted the atrocities on Dalits with a special mention of mass massacres since 1990, before Nitish took the reins in 2005.
Reacting to the budget, the former principal of Patna College and retired professor of economics, Nawal Kishore Chaudhary, said, “It was a propaganda budget with little branding as green budget talking about environment and water resources.”
He told TOI: “The budget speech was like the government’s campaign manifesto. The state’s budget should be about the government’s vision and plans for the next fiscal. What is the purpose of enumerating the number of medical and polytechnic colleges when there are no teachers? The focus on Jal-Jeevan-Hariyali Mission is a welcome move, but it also reflects the government’s failure on water resources front. The budget lacks vision.”
Modi, in his speech dwelt at length on the NDA government’s achievements such as 35% reservation for women in state jobs, 15 medical colleges in 15 years and revival of dying boards and corporations as opposed to the lack of development during the Lalu-Rabri rule.
Former state finance minister and senior RJD leader Abdul Bari Siddiqui termed it as a “copy and paste budget”. He said the Nitish government has been trumpeting the increased budget allocations every year and compares that to pre-2005 state budgets, but the finance minister never reveals how much funds lapse every year.
“They don’t mention the budget of other developed states of the country in the pre-2005 period. They also don’t tell that the budget size has been increased due to more central assistance over the years, as has been the case with other states as well. The present budget has neither vision nor road map or even proper homework,” he told TOI.
While presenting the Rs2,11,761.49 crore budget, SuMo said it has increased eight times compared to Rs 23,885 crore in 2004- 05.
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