New Delhi, Feb 9 (PTI) Trinamool Congress (TMC) MP Saugata Roy on Wednesday described the Union Budget 2022-23 as "cruel" to country's poor and said it does not offer to provide any relief to common man from the "pinch" of inflation.

Participating in a discussion on the general budget in Lok Sabha, he sought to corner the government on the issue of unemployment and said Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman has not proposed anything for generation of employment in tourism and travel sectors.

Also Read | Uttar Pradesh Assembly Elections 2022 Phase 1 Voting On February 10; 58 Vidhan Sabha Constituencies Across 11 Districts In Fray.

"Common man is feeling the pinch of inflation. The number of poor people have doubled in the country to reach 34 million. It is actually a cruel budget for poor," Roy said.

The TMC leaders noted that while food subsidy has been cut by 28 per cent, allocation of funds for rural job guarantee scheme, MGNREGA, has also been reduced.

Also Read | Vivo T1 5G With Snapdragon 695 SoC Launched in India at Rs 15,990.

"We wanted the finance minister to provide some support to poor, but the minister refused...So poor are poorer, that is the condition," he charged.

Roy noted that the World Bank discontinued the "ease of doing business" reports last year and said it was a "a matter of shame" that the finance minister used the term in her budget speech.

"Is it you ignorance? Such mistakes should not happen in budget speech. It is a matter of shame that finance minister doesn't know (that the World Bank has discontinued the ease of doing business rankings)," he said.

He demanded that the term, "ease of doing business", be removed from the finance minister's speech.

Criticising the government's economic policies, Roy said its idea of public investment is to spend money to build assets and give them to private players.

The Air India was sold to Tata just for Rs 18,000 crore, the TMC member added.

Participating in the discussion, Jharkhand Mukti Morcha (JMM) member Vijay Hansdak picked holes in the government's policy and said Union ministers for Health and Railways were "removed in the last reshuffle because they could not deliver".

"Please change (Prime Minister Naredndra) Modi because he is not able to run the country properly," he said.

The JMM member asked the government to consider giving tax relief to people.

Hitting back at the opposition, BJP member Sanjay Jaiswal said the country has witnessed a manifold increase in the number of start-ups in the Narendra Modi government, yet the opposition members say there is no ease of doing business.

He said the general budget for the fiscal 2022-23 is the budget of 'amrit kaal' and it is beneficial for all in the society,

"We are not doing vote back politics. It's an effort to take the country on the path of progress. These people (opposition members) have problems that we talk about next 25 years. They don't know the country is run with long term vision and plans," he said.

He asserted that implementation of the proposals made in the general budget will lead to creation of employment, both in formal and informal sectors.

"The Gati Shakti project will place India among the developed countries in the next 25 years," he added.

Shiv Sena member Shrirang Barne said disappointment of the people have further increased as the general budget does not have any provision to give relief to middle class and poor in the country.

"The government has failed in giving priority to agriculture sector," he said.

BSP member Ritesh Pandey said the government has done "great injustice" to Dalit women and children by not providing adequate budgetary allocations to fight malnutrition.

He also slammed the government on the issue of job losses and unemployment, and said its "claims about job creation are nothing but efforts to grab the headlines".

"The government is beating its trumpet saying companies are doing great while the truth is that smaller companies have been closed and their market share has reached the bigger companies. It is very sad," he said.

Congress MP Benny Behanan said all the nations are giving money in the hands of the people but "our government is taking money out from the pocket of the people, like a pickpocket."

Nothing has been set aside for those who lost everything during Covid, he alleged.

He termed the finance minister's speech as "disappointing" and said the govt will bear the consequences if it is not ready to take up issues of common man.

"I strongly oppose the budget speech (of finance minister)," he said.

BJP member and former Minister of State for Law P P Chaudhary called the budget "visionary" and said it will lay the foundation for the next 25 years.

(The above story is verified and authored by Press Trust of India (PTI) staff. PTI, India’s premier news agency, employs more than 400 journalists and 500 stringers to cover almost every district and small town in India.. The views appearing in the above post do not reflect the opinions of LatestLY)