A poll-oriented Budget, says K'taka BJP

Bangalore, Mar 1: Terming the Union budget presented by Finance Minister P Chidambaram as ''election-oriented,'' Karnataka BJP President D V Sadananda Gowda today opined the farm loan waiver would not bring benefit to farmers in the state.

Talking to newspersons here, Mr Gowda criticised the budget as it did not contain proposals for fulfilling the long-pending demand of the farming community for slashing farm loan interest from the present seven per cent to four per cent by commercial banks. While announcing the farm loan waiver to the extent of Rs 60,000 crore, the Finance Minister had not mentioned the burden caused to the financial institutions, he said.

Stating over 60 per cent of the benefit of the Rs 60,000 crore waiver would go to farmers of Bihar, Uttar Pradesh and Karnataka, he said the farmers of these states had already availed the benefit from the state's loan waiver scheme and they would have no stake in it.

Criticising Mr Chidambaram for failing to step up the allocation for infrastructure projects in various sectors, including sufrace transport, ports, power and irrigation, he said the budget lacked direction.

UNI