Budget lacks strategy and vision for India`s development: Modi

Ahmedabad: Gujarat Chief Minister Narendra Modi on Thursday said that the UPA government`s budget lacks a growth strategy and vision to develop India`s economy. Coming down heavily on the budget, he said that there is a lack of co-ordination between the 12th Five Year Plan and the budget presented for the year 2013-14 by Union Finance Minister P Chidambaram.

Modi said that the budget is the reflection of the non-performance during UPA-II`s five-year rule and it indicates that it has no connection with the reality of the common man. "The budget seems like the government wants to pass time for one more year, as it does not have anything to fulfil the aspirations of the common man," Modi said. "The UPA government which is embroiled in corruption and suffering from policy paralysis, has lost the last opportunity to take trustworthy steps to address challenges plaguing the Indian economy and show political will to put the country back on path of growth," Modi said. "Instead of taking decisive steps to control surging inflation, the budget has pushed the people into an atmosphere of gloom," Modi said. "This budget has no road map for monetary discipline, curbs on non-plan expenditure or financial strategy to bring down fiscal deficit which are essential for GDP growth," Modi said. "There is little provision in the budget for skill development or employment generation for youth. Instead of utilising the demographic dividend of the country in form of the young population, the government ignoring them," Modi said. "No seriousness is reflected in the budget to attract investments in social or infrastructure sectors," Modi said. "The union government`s debt is more than the combined debt of all states of the country," Modi said, adding that there is no attempt to encourage growth in states. Modi also said that there is no road map for growth of agriculture, villages and those sections of society which got left behind. PTI