From calling the Budget “deceptive” to offering nothing for the poor or unemployed youth, the Opposition on Thursday said the Yogi Adityanath government’s ninth Budget lacked a roadmap on how to take Uttar Pradesh forward.
“It is the ninth budget of the BJP government, but it offers nothing as promised to the poor. It is not a Budget. It is like a big drum, which is making a lot of noise but is hollow from inside. This Budget is hollow,” Akhilesh said.
He alleged that even after nine budgets, the Adityanath government failed to meet the poll promises made by his party before the 2017 Assembly elections. “The government has presented budgets without any roadmap on how to take the state forward. There is no clarity on how the needs of the common people will be addressed,” he stated.
He also took a dig at the BJP’s repeated claims of presenting the “biggest budget”, saying that every new budget is naturally larger than the previous one. “Every time they present a budget, they say it’s the biggest one. This statement can be made by any government because every budget is bound to be bigger than the last,” he said.
BSP chief Mayawati said had the Budget been more about the wider public interest and public welfare, it would have been better. In a series of posts on ‘X’, Mayawati wrote, “There is a clear lack of adequate government intention and policy towards eliminating inflation, poverty, unemployment and backwardness. How is true development possible?”
She said the Budget was aimed at “appeasing the well-fed middle class, while the real concern and constitutional responsibility of the government should be to fulfill the objective of “sarvajan sukhaya, sarvajan hitaye” by lifting crores of families out of poverty”. She said that when people of the state are struggling for basic facilities and are demanding better roads, water, schools, hospitals, livelihood, it is not right to show them other dreams rather than giving them solutions for the present problems.
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Pointing out that Uttar Pradesh’s population is grappling with insufficient infrastructure and inequality, Mayawati said there is lack of basic amenities in the cities, villages and regions of the state.
The BSP chief criticized the state government’s approach and said offering “other dreams” is not the solution to these fundamental issues.
The former chief minister also refuted the BJP’s claim that Uttar Pradesh was in a bad state before its rule. “The claim that UP was in a bad state before the BJP is not correct,” Mayawati asserted. “Under my BSP government, there was excellent rule of law at every level in terms of public interest and welfare as well as in crime control and law and order. This is something people are yearning for now, while the Bahujan Samaj is suffering due to the policies of the BJP,” she said.
The Congress termed the Budget “disappointing” and an “exercise in deception”.
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“The state Budget is full of fake data and claims. The government is under a large amount of loan and UP is at the 28th position in terms of per capita income. Further, the MSP of sugarcane farmers has increased just Rs 55 in the past 7 years,” said state Congress chief Ajay Rai.
Rai cited the Comptroller and Auditor General’s (CAG) report to claim that while the government boasts of reduced debt, Uttar Pradesh’s financial burden has actually increased.
“As of March 31, 2024, the total debt of the state stood at Rs 6,67,106.03 crore,” Rai said.
“Year after year, the state Budget has become nothing more than a ritual. False promises, misleading statistics, and fake dreams are being peddled to deceive the 25 crore people of Uttar Pradesh,” he added. — With PTI Inputs