Oppn parties disappointed by President''s Address

New Delhi, Feb 21 (PTI) Opposition parties todayexpressed disappointment over the President''s Address toParliament, saying it contained old promises on which it hadalready failed to deliver and lacked clarity on solutions toproblems like corruption.

BJP, Left parties and TDP said the Address was not up totheir expectations.

Congress, on the other side, said the President hadclearly outlined the government''s priorities to fightcorruption and other problems and inflation.

"President Pratibha Patil only read out para by para theproblems people of India are fighting - be it corruption,price rise, black money, anomalies in PDS or internalsecurity... The speech was not up to our expectations... Weare basically disheartened after hearing her speech,"BJP leader S S Ahluwalia said.

Alleged that the government was lacking transparency, hesaid BJP was expecting solutions to these problems but thesewere not mentioned in the address.

He said while the President Pratibha Patil mentionedprice rise, corruption, black money and other issues, "she hasnot told us about any solution to the problems in her speech.

She has given only one assurance that my government iscommitted. But committed to what we do not know."

CPI(M) leader Brinda Karat maintained that Patil hadrepeated the assurances given by her government last year asthese had not yet been fulfilled.

"Last year, the President gave a series of assurances,including a 100-day Charter. One year later, she has repeatedall of them, reflecting the utter failure of the government toimplement these measures," Karat said.

She listed price rise, control of corruption and Women''sReservation Bill as the pertinent issues.

CPI also criticised the Address, saying the prioritieslisted were actually a "list of its failures" and "lacks anyconviction or confidence to move forward".

"The priorities of the government as listed is a listof the government''s failure on all these counts," partyNational Secretary D Raja alleged here. .