Ministers to brief media on budget

In a first-of-its-kind exercise, all central government ministers will be launching a media campaign on the union budget 2016-17 explaining policies, programmes and budgetary allocations given to their respective ministries, to the public.
All ministers have been asked to hold discussions with correspondents covering their ministries, either through press conferences or meetings in the next 15 days, official sources said today.
They said ministers will explain priorities of the government and key programmes being undertaken by their ministries.
Ministers will be responding to the opposition parties' allegations against the union budget for 2016-17 presented by Finance Minister Arun Jaitley yesterday and highlight its "pro-poor" agenda, the sources said.

A senior minister has been made in-charge to coordinate with the implementation of this exercise, they said.
The decision assumes importance as opposition parties have termed as "mere rhetoric" projection of the budget as pro-poor and said government will not be able to "fool" the agrarian community with "hollow promises".

Congress has said the budget "failed to create an immediate stimulus" to address economic challenges including employment generation.
All ministers have been asked to hold these interactions as early as possible, the sources said.
Prime Minister Narendra Modi has said the 2016-17 budget is pro-village, poor and farmers with focus on bringing about qualitative change in the country and alleviate poverty through a slew of time-bound programmes.