NEW DELHI: The United Progressive Alliance Government was at the receiving end in Parliament on Tuesday not only from the Opposition but also its Left allies and other coalition partners such as Rashtriya Janata Dal. While the Left parties rapped the Government for failing to check the all-round rise in prices, the RJD took it to task for doing little to improve the lot of the farmers.

Participating in the discussion on the Union Budget for 2007-08 in the Lok Sabha, the CPI (M) warned Finance Minister P. Chidambaram that immediate steps should be taken to contain the price spiral and manage the economy better as time was running out. Even a Congress member chipped in saying huge funds allocated for the rural employment guarantee programme were "going down the drain".

Mohammad Salim (CPI-M) pointed out that the Government in its budget proposals did not show enough political will to mobilise the additional resources required to meet its own commitments outlined in the National Common Minimum Programme.

The Government, he said, should be ashamed of the fact that even as the number of billionaires in the country was on the rise, thousands of farmers were committing suicide while women and children were dying on account of malnutrition.

Arguing in favour of higher tax on corporates and long-term capital gains, Mr. Salim asked Mr. Chidambaram why the Government was still providing exemptions to industrial houses while making efforts to reduce the subsidy on food.

"Mr. Finance Minister, time is running out," he said, while urging greater attention to the problems of the farm sector, rising prices and uplift of minorities.

Vijay Krishna (RJD) accused the Government of ignoring the recommendations of the Swaminathan Committee to improve the lot of farmers. "Not a single recommendation of the Swaminathan Committee has been incorporated in the budget. This is not in the interest of farmers," he said.

On a different note, Kharabela Swain (BJP) observed that Mr. Chidambaram had failed to utilise an opportunity to introduce "big bang reforms" for sustained growth of the economy. "We appreciate that the economy is growing at an unprecedented rate, fiscal deficit is down and revenue is up, but the Finance Minister has only increased funding for some schemes while announcing pilot projects for each sector," he said.

Dubbing the budget as "corporate-oriented", Rajiv Ranjan Singh `Lallan' (JD-U) pointed out that the Prime Minister's package for Vidarbha farmers would not end their miseries. This, he said, was because the Maharashtra Government had informed the court that it had received only Rs. 50 lakh from the Centre as funds for the package.

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