Initiating the debate, Congress leader of the Opposition Madhukar Pichad touched upon several issues that were glossed over or made a mockery of in the budget but even he let the government off lightly. He mentioned Deputy Chief Minister Gopinath Munde in reference to the CBI inquiry into the Maharashtra State Electricity Board (MSEB) contract but stopped short of demanding his resignation.

Pichad's key point: It is pointless to expect justice of any kind from this government, particularly social justice for the poor and under-privileged. ``What is your commitment to tribal welfare when three ministers have been changed,'' he asked to press his point that the budget provided just about four per cent for a tribal population that numbered nine per cent, or nearly 27 lakh, in the state.

The populist measure ofproviding rice and wheat at two rupees a kilo was bound to fail, he said. ``One NTR tried and failed in Andhra Pradesh, why does the NTR (Narayan Tatu Rane) want to start it here,'' he asked. Basically, none of the schemes designated for the poor are meant for them; the government's intention is not to alleviate their condition but to announce so-called welfare schemes, Pichad stated.

He made a particular reference to the latest survey conducted to identify the people below poverty line in the state. ``The survey itself is wrong... it's done in such a way that very few poor people remain. These schemes will not even benefit them,'' he said.

The surprise of the day was that the Congress did not demand Munde's resignation on an issue that has caught him on the backfoot.

Pichad however congratulated his party colleague Digvijay Khanvilkar for pursuing the MSEB case in the High Court and seeing it through.

Such stringent orders have not been passed by the High Court before, Pichad said, but immediatelydeflected the issue from Munde and demanded that the entire Cabinet resign.

The budget was anti-poor and common people, said Sohail Lokhandwala of the Samajwadi Party. The government could not fool all the people all the time, he said, declaring that the government had failed miserably to provide the 27 lakh jobs promised during the election campaign. In Mumbai alone, there are 13 lakh unemployed people, while the figure reaches a whopping 44 lakh in employment exchanges across the state. He made a fervent appeal to roll back the additional tax on petrol and diesel since it affected the common man.

Speaking on the Congress glee that the zunka bhakar scheme was being withdrawn, Sena member Vijay Shinde stated that its was unnecessarily maligned as Sita was in Ram Rajya.

``But just like Sita, the scheme will go through agni pariksha and come out successful. It will be reinstated by our government in next year's budget,'' he declared.