The BJP and AJSU Party, the two NDA partners in the Opposition in Jharkhand, termed the state budget tabled in the Assembly on Wednesday as a "visionless" document with nothing in it for the long-term as claimed by chief minister Hemant Soren.

Former chief minister Raghubar Das said, “The budget is depressing” and wondered about the status of actions taken on the previous budget. “Allocating funds can’t bring growth if these aren’t spent. This government must present an action taken report (ATR) like my government used to do,” he said.

Union tribal affairs minister and former CM Arjun Munda said despite tall claims of the state government, the budget did not reveal how it wanted to create jobs. “The state is reeling under unemployment, especially after the Covid-19 lockdown. But the budget doesn’t specify how it intends to create jobs,” he said.

State BJP president and Rajya Sabha MP Deepak Prakash mocked the state government for hinging on central assistances to prepare ther budget. “Of the total budget size, Rs 40,000 crores will be from Central assistance. This exposes the dual attitude of the state government. On the one hand it has been blaming lack of assistance from the Centre and on the other hand, all its major schemes will be funded by Central coffers. All that the state government is trying to do is pass it off as its own plans by renaming and repackaging,” he alleged.

Former deputy chief minister and AJSU-P chief Sudesh Mahto stressed that government should have made provisions for free Covid vaccination. “There is nothing to cheer but we would have welcomed it if the state government thought of providing free vaccination to people in the state where the majority is poor,” he said.

Saffron protest in Assembly

Opposition BJP MLAs, wearing saffron T-shirts and kurtas with slogans printed against the government, resorted to protests within and outside the Assembly during and after the presentation of the state budget on Wednesday.

The slogans on the T-shirts were against the government for scrapping the state recruitment policy framed by the former BJP-led government, poor law and order and joblessness, among others. As the Assembly proceedings began, Congress's Poriyahat MLA Pradeep Yadav objected to the BJP MLAs' saffron attire in the House and sought their eviction.

The Speaker later asked the BJP MLAs to maintain decorum and shed the saffron dresses. The MLAs refused, forcing the Speaker to adjourn the House amid pandemonium.