By Quaid Najmi

Mumbai, Feb 1 (IANS): In a sharp critique of the Union Budget 2022-23 presented by Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman, leaders of Maharashtra's ruling MVA on Tuesday slammed it as an "aimless, disappointing and meaningless" exercise while continuing the tradition of meting out injustice to the state.

Leading the Maha Vikas Aghadi (MVA) charge, Chief Minister Uddhav Thackeray said the budget has been a let-down on all fronts for all sections of society, despite high expectations owing to the havoc caused by coronavirus in the past two years.

"The Covid-19 pandemic has hit every sector of the economy especially the MSMEs or jobs while dependence has increased on agriculture, but nothing has been said to address these critical issues," he said.

While lauding the Centre's move to allocate Rs 15,000 crore interest-free loans to states for capital expenditure and hiking the provision for next year to Rs 1 lakhcrore, Thackeray urged that the government should not impose tough conditions for this or the states would not get any benefits from the increased limits.

Deputy Chief Minister and Finance Minister Ajit Pawar said that the budget is full of hollow announcements and even the claim of it being a "blueprint for 25 years" development will go up in the air like similar ones of 'Make In India' or 'Atmanirbhar India'.

Accusing the Centre of "continued injustice", Pawar said the government collected a total GST of Rs 220,000 crore in the current fiscal including Rs 48,000 crore from Maharashtra, but in return, the state got back only Rs 5,500 crore, and urged all the MPs from the state to take the issue with the Central leaders.

Congress legislative party leader and Revenue Minister Balasaheb Thorat said while unemployment has skyrocketed to its highest levels ever, the government is showing false dreams of new 60 lakh jobs without any strategy, either to protect existing jobs or for opening up newer employment opportunities.

He labelled the budget as "frustrating on all fronts with nothing for farmers, labourers, middle-class, small traders, women, unemployed, students, Dalits or minorities barring the select few industrialist friends of the BJP government" and eyeing the upcoming Assembly elections in five states.

Shiv Sena's farmer face, Kishore Tiwari attacked the budget for keeping mum on burning issues of the peasantry like economic problems afflicting farmlands, hiking the MSP, promise to double the farmers' incomes, crop insurance, crop loans, but instead resorting to slash subsidy on foodgrains for the poor which is unjust.

He said the Centre has not said anything on how it will credit MSP directly to the farmers, or the increased production costs considering the spiralling prices of fertilisers, seeds, diesel, and overall inflation.

"The government is looting farmers by imposing GST on agricultural tools, it talks about Rs 6,000 given to farmers under Kisan Sanman Yojana, but keeps silent on its claims of doubling farmers' income by 2022," Tiwari added.

State Congress President Nana Patole said joblessness is at its peak in the past 45 years and though the BJP had promised 2 crore jobs every year, the reality was more than 3 crore people became jobless during the BJP rule.

"There is no recruitment for government posts, no opportunities in other sectors, and so the figure of 60 lakh jobs is as fake as the 2 crore jobs, shattering the dreams of the youth," he said.

All India Kisan Sabha (AIKS) Maharashtra General Secretary Dr. Ajit Navale said that though Sitharaman has made a positive proposal on prioritising oilseeds production, increasing the irrigated area and implementing the river linking projects or solar energy, she has ignored the farming community without the anticipated support to the tillers.

"The agro-crisis in the country is worsening daily owing to the Centre's policies, but there are no new policies or schemes to provide basic protection to farmers, no provisions to protect prices of perishables like tomatoes, vegetables or fruits, or addressing the serious issue of huge increase in production costs," he said.

Former CM Ashok Chavan flayed the BJP leaders for calling the budget as "historic" and said the FM's speech was the shortest in years, implying the government had nothing to say.

"Though the FM used verses from Mahabharata and big words like 'Amritkaal' or 'Gatishakti', it turned out to be an empty budget on all counts and to cover up its failures, the government has shown a new carrot of 25 years development," he said.

Despite collecting a record GST of Rs 140,000 crore in January 2022, the people have not seen their incomes rising and the Centre is relying on privatisation of the public sector, as seen in the upcoming LIC IPO, said the senior Congress leader.

On the other hand, BJP's Leader of Opposition in Assembly Devendra Fadnavis thumped the budget as being "ahead of the times" with the country set to become even more "self-reliant".

"Extremely progressive, futuristic, inclusive, not a single sector or geographical region left uncared... It proves how India is progressing ahead at a very fast speed with a very powerful engine," he said.