Madhya Pradesh Chief Minister Shivraj Singh Chouhan hailed the state budget presented today, terming it as "balanced and development-oriented", while Opposition Congress decried it as "anti-people, disappointing and directionless".
MP Finance Minister Jayant Mallaiya presented the budget for 2016-17 in the state Assembly today.
"The state budget is balanced, development-oriented and employment-oriented, and fulfils the demands of the weaker sections," Chouhan said in a statement.
"In the current global scenario, it is revolutionary as it has focused on generating resources intelligently," the CM said.
Chouhan said the state now figures in the list of those few states whose total budget is over Rs 1.5 lakh crore.
However, slamming the BJP-led state government, Congress chief whip in Lok Sabha Jyotiraditya Scindia said, "The budget is anti-people. It doesn't have anything for common man, nothing significant for youth and farmers."
"We thought that since Modi (government) has curtailed significantly in various schemes associated with the common man, the Chouhan government would do something for them. However, nothing of that sort has happened," Scindia said in a statement.
He alleged that during the present BJP rule, MP's debt has increased manifold and in comparison to that, the per capita income of people of the state has not gone up, which in any case is much lesser than the national average.
Congress general secretary Digvijaya Singh also termed the budget as "disappointing and directionless."
"It has no action plan for the state's coordinated development. There is nothing for the improvement of education and health sector and has a huge loan burden on it," Singh said in a statement.
State Congress president Arun Yadav said, "It has no long-term direction for infrastructure development like roads, power, irrigation, health and cleanliness.
