Akhilesh terms UP Budget ‘directionless’, Mayawati calls it ‘bunch of promises’

Opposition leaders criticise the UP budget 2023 as gives ‘no solution to the existing problems’.

Samajwadi Party president Akhilesh Yadav on Wednesday termed the Uttar Pradesh budget ‘directionless’ and said that it has 'no solution for the existing problems. He also pointed out that the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP)-led state government has ‘not built a single stadium’ yet it ‘talks about building sports university’.

Opposition leaders criticise the UP budget 2023 as gives ‘no solution to the existing problems’. (PTI)

“This is a directionless budget. The budget neither has a solution for the existing problems, nor can it take forward the policies for the future," he was quoted as saying by news agency ANI.

Similarly, Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP) chief Mayawati said the state budget is a ‘vadon ka pitara’ (a bunch of promises) ahead of the Lok Sabha elections in 2024.

“Keeping in mind the much-publicised announcements, promises and claims of the UP BJP government, its statements and actions to remove poverty, unemployment, illiteracy, backwardness, anarchy etc, the budget is a betrayal of about 24 crore people who are suffering from inflation," she said in a series of tweets.

Uttar Pradesh's finance minister Suresh Khanna announced the state budget worth around ₹7 lakh crore with primary focus on welfare schemes, infrastructure development and women, youth empowerment. It allotted ₹3,600 crore for the provision of tablets and smartphones to eligible students of the Swami Vivekananda Youth Empowerment Scheme, ₹1,050 crore under the Chief Minister Kanya Sumangala Yojana among other alocations.

Akhilesh Yadav further said that the state government promotes ‘ease of doing business’ but he pointed out a different reality.

“They (government) say 'ease of doing business' but in reality, it is the 'ease of doing crime',” he said.

However, the state government claimed that crime in Uttar Pradesh has reduced drastically in 2022 as compared with 2016. It also earmarked over ₹2,500 crore for the police department with an aim to strengthen state's law and order situation.

Khanna told the assembly that the government's priority is to prepare the police force to face challenges in an effective way.

“There has been a decrease of 79.83 per cent in cases of dacoity, 63.49 per cent in robbery, 33.89 per cent in murder, 53.22 per cent in 'balwa' (ruckus), 17.22 per cent in theft and 44 per cent in kidnapping for ransom from January 2022 to November 2022, compared to the year 2016,” he said.