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Thiruvananthapuram Feb. 28 The Chief Minister, Mr V.S. Achuthanandan, has termed the Union Budget 2007-08 as largely disappointing.

Speaking to newspersons here, he said the Budget had left both the crisis-ridden sectors of agriculture and cooperatives begging for any meaningful initiative that could bring about a much-needed turnaround.

No lesson seems to have been learnt from the electoral reverses the UPA alliance received in Punjab and Uttarakhand. The heavily indebted small and marginal farmer population and rural India at large would need to fend for themselves for another long year.

The Union Finance Minister did not care to act on the M.S. Swaminathan Commission recommendation for making farm credit available at reduced interest rate of four per cent.

The State Finance Minister, Dr Thomas Isaac, said that the Union Budget had not provided for any major initiative to make small savings scheme attractive.

Several doles that Mr Chidambaram had promised to States in lieu of their agreeing to a reduction of one per cent in Central Sales Tax were conspicuous by their absence.

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