Charging the government with failure to address the issues of inflation and black money in the general budget, the Opposition on Wednesday described the budget as lacklustre with no initiatives to propel growth.
Initiating the debate on Union Budget 2011-12 in the Rajya Sabha, senior BJP leader Ravi Shankar Prasad said Finance Minister, Pranab Mukherjee has not laid down any roadmap to check rising prices.
“We regret to say in this entire budget there is no roadmap for tackling inflation and people are left in the lurch. I do not see this budget will propel growth,” he said.
Mr. Prasad said while foodgrains were rotting, inflation touched a meteoric rise against a backdrop where 80 per cent children and 70 per cent women were suffering from malnutrition.
“It is a classic case of gross mismanagement as a huge quantity of foodgrains is rotting outside godowns at a time when people are suffering due to hunger. Opposition-ruled States were being discriminated in allocation from the Central pool,” he charged.
The BJP leader said the government failed to bring down inflation and was only making a pious wish that it would come down next year. No concrete measures were announced in the budget to fuel growth in the agriculture sector and attract educated youth to farming, he said. “There is uncertainty as far as the poor are concerned. A few millionaires have amassed majority of the nation's wealth,” he said.
Criticising the government for not coming up with details on black money, he said, the country wanted to know at least the amount stashed away abroad, number of individuals involved and action taken against them.
