No ground behind criticism over budget : PM Oli

<p>Prime Minister KP Sharma Oli has said that the comment that the budget tabled by the Government yesterday is of 'huge size' and 'distributive' does not hold any substance.<br><br>Speaking at the parliamentary party meeting of his party, the CPN-UML at the UML PP office in New Baneswor today, he said the comments have come just because of a result of the trend that an opposition party has to express disagreement over the ruling parties' act. <br><br>Also Chair of UML and its PP, leader Oli challenged the opposition parties to come up with evidence to show where and how the budget is distributive.<br><br>He said the budget is oriented towards development of the country, advancement of the people and socialism as envisaged in the new constitution. &nbsp;<br>On remarks from various quarters on the size of the budget, the PM said that the size of the budget is smaller by four percent as compared to previous one. <br><br>He also said that the government has allocated budget in various sectors with due responsibility for the development of the country. The Prime Minister said the principles of the budget advocate development and prosperity of the country. &nbsp;<br><br>Responding to criticism of the budget by various quarters, Finance Minister Bishnu Prasad Poudel said that the criticism was made on the ground that the government has brought a very popular budget, but not the fact that they dislike it. <br><br>He defended the budget, saying that it has accorded high-priority to the construction of federal structures, local elections, agriculture and energy. <br><br>CPN-UML chief whip Bhanu Bhakta Dhakal termed the budget as good and urged all lawmakers to support it, and help with passing it.<br><br>He said that a good message would be spread if a campaign regarding good aspect of government's policies and programmes would be launched across the nation.<br><br>Vice-Chairman of the National Planning Commission, Dr Yubraj Khatiwada, said that attention was paid in budget allocation to the production sector including agriculture, with an targeted economic growth rate of 6.50 to upgrade the country from a least developed to a developing country. <br><br>It was not right to criticize over the size of budget as budget was allocated on the basis of parliamentarians.<br><br>Likewise, NPC member Dr Suchitra Shakya suggested to take the budget for intellectual discussion across the nation.<br><br></p>