NEW DELHI - As Finance Minister Pranab Mukherjee presented the first General Budget under UPA Government’s second inning, various opposition parties opted to highlight its loopholes in their own way.

Senior Bharatiya Janata Party leader Murli Manohar Joshi described the General Budget as highly defocused and the worst ever witnessed in his Parliamentary career so far.

“The budget neither addresses inclusive growth, nor refers to employment, nor talks of health and agriculture,” said M.M.Joshi, senior BJP leader.

Communist Party of India (Marxist) criticised the Congress-led UPA Govt. for doing precious little for the common man and only catering to certain sections of the country.

“The UPA Government, the Congress party, went into this whole budget exercise with the slogan of inclusive growth. But as far as we can make out, from what the budget figure shows where is the inclusive growth for ‘Aam Aadmi’, the allocation for social sector, is so pathetic. For example, the unorganised sector workers, what are they given? Hundred crore rupees increase in the Budget, as far as unorganised sector workers are concerned, for Right to Education. What have they given, practically, no money at all. So is there going to be another budget? Is there going to be special allocation for right to education? We don’t know,” Brinda Karat, senior CPI (M) leader.

Senior Janata Dal (U) leader and Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar criticised the budget and called the “inclusive growth” claims of the Finance Minister as hollow.

“The General Budget presented by honourable Finance Minister is very disappointing and the claim made by him that he wants an inclusive growth in the country is a hollow claim,” said Nitish Kumar, Bihar Chief Minister.

However, External Affairs Minister S.M.Krishna lauded fellow congressman and Finance Minister Pranab Mukherjee on presenting a Budget that meets the aspirations and promises made by the Congress party during recent parliamentary elections.

“It has been a fairly good budget under most difficult circumstances that we are facing. There is a global recession and India itself cannot escape from the impact of the global realities and more particularly the global economic realities. The Finance Minister has done an excellent job in trying to meet substantially the aspirations and the promises the Congress party has made in the last elections,” said Krishna.

While presenting the budget in the Parliament, Pranab Mukherjee had said that first challenge is to return the GDP growth rate of 9 percent per annum at the earliest. The second challenge is to deepen and broaden the agenda for inclusive development. (ANI)