Mudra yojna,free food grain, cooking gas:FM rebuts crony slur

Union finance minister Nirmala Sitharaman on Friday hit back at opposition and  tore into the Congress’ criticism of the Union Budget for attempting to paint the Narendra Modi government as one catering only to crony capitalist.She especially hit out the Congress, saying it has become the opposition’s habit to constantly accuse the Centre in spite of the steps it is taking for the poor. Listing out the provisions in Budget 2021 and other policy measures aimed at India's poor, she even took a swipe at the BJP's main rival by playing on the oft-used son-in-law theme to embarrass it. in her reply to the debate on the udget, she said, "It's a budget which clearly draws on the experience, the administrative capacities and also exposure that the Prime Minister had during his long elected tenure, both as CM and as PM of this country, known for his commitment towards development, growth, and reforms. So these three things are essentially infused in the budget which is now speaking for itself in the sense that it is the instrument through which Aatmanirbhar Bharat is to be attained,” the finance minister said in the Rajya Sabha.

Sjtharaman said the government is also looking up at"long term sustainable growth" besides providing 'quick short term solutions’. “So post-pandemic and post-global contraction, economies have suffered across the world. And as I said in my budget speech the attempt made in this budget is to provide strong stimulus, to provide such a stimulus which can bring in a multiplier effect and therefore instead of finding quick short term solutions, even as we provide short term quick relief for those people who so desperately need it," she said.Sitharaman said 800 million people had been provided free food grain, 80 million had been given free cooking gas, and cash was directly transferred to the accounts of some 400 million people, farmers, women, divyang (differently-abled), and the poor.She then asked the opposition if only cronies benefited from these provisions."Over 1.67 crore houses were completed under the PM Awas Yojana. Is it for the rich? Over 2.67 crore households were electrified under PM Saubhagya Yojana since 2017 October. The total value of orders placed on government e-market is ₹ 8,22,077 crore. Are they being given to big companies? They're being given to MSMEs," she said. 
Over 3.6 lakh crore digital transactions made via the Unified Payments Interface between Augusts 2016 till January 2020."UPI is used by who? The rich? No. Middle class, smaller traders. Who are these people then? Is government creating UPI, facilitating digital transactions to benefit rich cronies? “’Damad', I didn't think is the trademark of Indian National Congress. Damad har ghar mein hota hai. Magar Damad Indian National Congress mein ek specialised naam hai,” Sitharaman said in the Rajya Sabha. “Loans sanctioned under Mudra Yojana - more than ₹27,000 crore. Who takes Mudra Yojana? Damads?” she also asked.