A day after the Eknath Shinde-led BJP government presented the Maharashtra Budget 2022-23, Opposition party MLAs termed the Budget as a “populist election Budget”. The MLAs staged a protest outside the Vidhan Sabha and raised slogans holding pumpkins in their hands, reported The Indian Express.
On Thursday, Maharashtra Deputy Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis, who also holds the finance portfolio, presented the maiden Budget of the Shinde-led government. He said that the Budget was based on the principle of ‘Panchamrut’, with the focus on farmers, women, youth, employment and the environment.
The Maharashtra Budget 2022-23 proposed Rs 6,000 assistance to farmers and Re 1 crop insurance scheme while also offering relief in professional tax to working women, 50 per cent discount on ticket fares in state-run buses to women and a new scheme for the girl child. He also announced 10 lakh affordable houses to be built in the next three years, and 50 km Metro lines to be made operational in the Mumbai Metropolitan Region this year.
Meanwhile, the Shiv Sena faction headed by Uddhav Thackeray
The elections for the cash-rich Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC) are due this year, and the state Assembly polls are due in October 2024.
In the Shiv Sena’ mouthpiece ‘Saamana’, the party said, “The Budget is a ‘gajar halwa’ (sweet dish made of carrots) of announcements that is aimed at misleading people.”
It also took a dig at Fadnavis, saying, “Why didn’t the finance minister show generosity in giving compensation for the crops damaged due to unseasonal rains?” the party asked in the editorial, adding that the only solution to the farm produce is to give it a price based on cost of production, reported PTI.
“This year’s budget shows that the state government’s policy is to peddle false dreams to farmers and people by showering sops on them,” it alleged.
Meanwhile, on Thursday, former Maharashtra minister Aaditya Thackeray took a dig at the CM saying that “traitors can’t be trusted”.
“Those who are giving assurance today are traitors so how can they be trusted,” Thackeray said.
“How much can you trust them? Assurances were given by the previous government during 2014-2019. How many of them were fulfilled,” he added, reported news agency ANI.