Budget has many nice words, some money but no direction: CSE

An environment think tank today said although the union budget had "many nice words and some money" but it failed to show any direction for "real change."
Centre for Science and Environment (CSE) said although the announcement of national adaption fund a first step to recognise the need to invest in building resilience of poor communities against climate change, it also added that the allocation of Rs 100 crore might be too little.
"The recognition that climate change is real and the need to 'adapt' is urgent is a very important message of Budget 2014. The FM provides Rs 100 crore of national adaptation fund.

"While it can be argued that this is too little, it is also a fact that this is a first step to recognise the need to invest in building resilience of poor communities against climate change. The question we will have now is, what will this money be used for?" director general of CSE Sunita Narain was quoted as saying in a press release.
She said,"Budget 2014: Many nice words, some money, but no direction for real change."
The CSE said the NDA Budget was no different from UPA-II when it comes to polluting vehicles as in Budget 2013, the then Finance Minister P Chidambaram had increased the tax on SUVs saying that they were inefficient and polluting.

"But in February, he took away the tax. Budget 2014 also believes that it must help cars that are large, inefficient and dirty," it said.

Talking about Rs 2,037 crore allocated for cleaning Ganga, CSE said the programme must be reinvented to succeed.
"The FM says nothing about the re-direction needed to clean the river. The previous UPA government had made funds available and even secured a loan of Rs 4,600 crore from the World Bank for Ganga cleaning.
"But all this money has not cleaned the Ganga because the approach is flawed. It focuses on building sewage treatment plants, which does not work in our poor and largely un-sewered cities," the press release said.