Union Budget 2018 Reactions

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NEW DELHI: Finance Minister Arun Jaitley on Thursday presented the annual budget for the session 2018-19. PM Modi and other leaders of the the ruling party praised it as a significant reform while opposition parties came down heavily.

Here’s who said what:

PM Modi was all praise for the Union Budget 2018. He said,”Desh ki neev mazboot karne wala budget hai, farmer friendly, common man friendly, business friendly aur development friendly hai (This budget is farmer friendly, Common man friendly, business friendly aur development friendly. It will strengthen foundation of our nation.”

President of the Bharatiya Janata Party hailed the budget saying, “This budget gives new wings to the aspirations of the poor, farmers and the middle class.”

Manish Tewari of the Congress said, “The govt has attempted to pay lip service to farmers and to other marginalised sections of society but it is a classical case of too less and completely at the inappropriate time.”

Chief Minister of Bihar and ally of the BJP, Nitish Kumar congratulated the government

Yogi Adityanath, Chief Minister of Uttar Pradesh also congratulated saying, “Desh ke ghareebon, gaon, kisaano, buzurgon ko dhyaan mein rakh kar behtareen yojnaayen hain, PM ka abhinandan aur FM ko badhai.”

Yanamala Rama Krishnudu, Finance Minister of Andhra Pradesh.

Former Uttarakhand CM and Congress leader Harish Rawat said,”Old words have been repeated. No benefits for farmers, labours, dalits, unemployed youths and middle-class families as yet.”

Union Minister MJ Akbar termed it a ‘historic’. “In the 1 hour 45 minute speech, 1 hour was for the poor, this is indeed historic. The opposition has become too pessimistic,” Akbar said.

Mr. Amit Jain, MD, CMI Ltd. CMI is a listed, specialty cables company said, ‘The emphasis on Infrastructure spending augurs well for companies catering to this sector & Strengthening of Railways through Capex of 1,48,558crores will benefit CMI Ltd. which counts Indian Railways as its largest customer.’’

Mr. Arun Nagpal, Co-Founder, Mrida Group .Mrida, a Social Business Venture that seeks to build sustainable and scalable, financially viable business models aimed at holistic rural development.

“I welcome the Finance Ministers’ proposals for the Rural Economy. It is laudatory that the budget proposes a comprehensive package for all segments of Rural economy like Agriculture, Fishing & Aquaculture, Animal Husbandry, Food Processing, etc. as this shows the resolve to cover the Rural populace through the length and breadth of the country. The initiative to bring together all the stakeholders under one umbrella will help in speedy implementation of the projects and will put the focus firmly on sustainable development. The outlay of Rs.14.34 lakh crores on Rural and Agriculture sector shows the commitment of the Government to uplifting rural lives. Providing of Market linkages for produce by converting Rural Haats to Grameen Rural Markets on the lines of APMC shows that there is a realization in the government that more needs to be done for marketing of Rural produce. I only hope that there is equal focus on execution and outcomes so that actual changes take place on the ground.”

Dr. P. Sathyanarayanan, President of SRM University

“We are very happy to see the continued focus on research and development in the education sector. The fact that Rs. 1 lakh crore has been earmarked for revitalising innovation under RISE over the next 4 years augurs well for the future. We at SRM are committed to creating an innovation and R&D focused institution and we believe that we are completely in sync with the aspirations of the Government in reaping rich demographic dividend and this is possible through high quality education. The focus on creating a corpus of the best brains of the country and getting top 1,000 B.Tech students from the top institutions to work for research is a healthy way forward and we are grateful to the FM for his programmes in the segment”

Union Minister Smriti Irani said,”I want congratulate Prime Minister Narendra Modi on announcing the world’s biggest national health protection scheme. This budget is for the development of the poor, for farmers and increasing their income, senior citizens and women.”

“Its a transformational budget and it will bring about a positive change in everyone’s lives. Its a budget for the common man, the farmers and for the nation”, said Union Minister Ananth Kumar.

Calling it a balanced budget, Railway Minister Piyush Goyal said,”Its a balanced budget which is for every section of society, especially the focus on farmers and health services of the poor. Economy will also get a boost.I congratulate PM Modi and FM Jaitley.”

Former PM, HD Dewe Gowda said,”FM has tried to make improvements for farmers but the problems of farmers and rural people are enormous. Measures may not be sufficient.”

Union minister Nitin Gadkari said,”Medical insurance of Rs 5 lakh for 10 crore families is a huge initiative. This is a historic budget.”