Budget disappointing, lacks clear roadmap: Former PM Manmohan Singh

Former prime minister Manmohan Singh on Saturday said the budget reflected lot of "good intentions" of the NDA government but it lacked any clear roadmap to achieve the goals.

Former prime minister Manmohan Singh on Saturday said the budget reflected lot of "good intentions" of the NDA government but it lacked any clear roadmap to achieve the goals.

Describing the budget as disappointing, Singh, who is credited with ushering in economic reforms as Finance Minister in the Narasimha Rao government in 1991, said the Modi dispensation did not lay out any framework to implement various initiatives announced in the budget.

"My worry about the budget is that it has good intentions but it does not have an adequate roadmap and framework to implement the inititiaves," the former Prime Minister said.

He said though lot of funds have been established there was no concrete direction to convert them to solid action plan.

Singh was also critical of the government over "inadequate" fund allocation to various welfare measures for rural areas of the country and poor people.

705 of the people in the country live in rural areas. There was not much attention to them, he said.