Nothing but false promises: Vasundhara Raje

This is a disappointing and negative Budget that is based on several false premises. First, why does the Budget recognise only floods and not drought?

Rajasthan and Gujarat are endemically drought-prone. We had expected some provisions for us but nothing came of it. Second, the Budget brings construction within the ambit of the service tax.

If there is a slowdown in construction, there will be no employment for lakhs of people. An allocation of Rs 72 crore for credit-linked agricultural loans is a joke "" the amount is too small. The Budget has made much of the states accepting the VAT.

But it ignored several clarifications, we have made, including that until the roadmap for doing away with central sales tax is spelt out, we will not abolish the VAT.

The Centre has increased the volumes of supplementary nutrition requirements. But the state government is responsible for 50 per cent funding for such programmes. Shouldn't they have asked us if we can afford it?