Opposition parties flay TN budget

DMK and other opposition parties today lashed out at the AIADMK government's budget for 2015-16, saying it failed to address key issues, including economy and power.
The budget presented by Chief Minister O Panneerselvam contained repeated 'glorious' references to AIADMK supremo Jayalalithaa, but "there are no announcements benefiting the common man," DMK president M Karunanidhi said in a statement.
Referring to Panneerselvam's remarks over certain cuts in central taxes, the DMK chief asked why he did not take up the matter with Union Finance Minister Arun Jaitley when he visited Tamil Nadu and met Jayalalithaa.
While the government 'proudly' said that allocation to agriculture had been increased, why was there no word on the perils of the Cauvery delta farmers or about increasing the procurement price of paddy and sugaracane, he asked.

Karunanidhi also said that the budget had made no mention about solar power besides the industrialisation efforts.
CPI (M) state secretary G Ramakrishnan said the budget lacked both public welfare announcements as well as solutions to address the economic situation and that it only 'concealed' the present situation.
He said the government had not come up with any measures to address the problems of farmers even as the MSME sector was facing lot of issues.
TNCC president E V K S Elangovan and PMK founder S Ramadoss said the budget lacked measures for employment creation and power generation among others.