FM's 16-point plan for agriculture is eyewash: Sena leader

Shiv Sena leader Kishore Tiwari on Saturday termed finance minister Nirmala Sitharaman's 16-point action plan for agriculture in Budget 2020-21 as an eyewash.

Tiwari said the Union budget did not provide any solution to address core issues related to cost, crop, credit and risk management.

"The agrarian sector is in crisis with farmers committing suicide. This is an outcome of wrong policies adopted in banking, import-export, development, infrastructure and environmental sectors," he said.

Calling the finance minister's 16-point action plan an eyewash, Tiwari said fresh incentives and bailout packages given to industrial, commercial and service sectors had failed to boost the GDP.

"To reverse the present trend of recession, a special bailout package should have been announced for agriculture," he said.

Issues such as minimum support price (MSP) for cotton and soybean, new crop loans, new technology, financial assistance for farm widows and higher education for their wards were not addressed in the budget, he said.