<span style="color: #222222;">Rajya Sabha today began the discussion on the Union Budget 2020-21. Initiating the discussion, Congress leader P. Chidambaram termed the economy to be in a state of demand constraints and investment shortage. He said, demonetization and GST were monumental blunders. <br />''<br />''Mr. Chidambaram said, falling consumption and rising unemployment have brought the economy to a grave situation. Further, he demanded that the periodic labour force survey, 2018 and report of the 75th round of NSSO survey on consumer expenditure be tabled in the parliament. Speaking on the Taxpayers charter proposed in the Budget 2020-21, Mr. Chidambaram said that the fear pervading in entire country regarding the taxation policies can be eased by taking away the freehand given to the officers of IT, ED , DRI and other enforcement agencies.<br />''<br />'' Mr. Chidambaram said that electricity and education being key markers of the state of the economy of any country the thermal plants functioning at merely 45 per cent of their overall capacity signifies the shortage in demand. He further said that this also infers towards the state of industries in the country. Congress leader Chidambaram stated that the allocation towards key schemes have been reduced in the Budget 2020-21.<br />''<br />''Ravi Prakash Verma of Samajwadi Party said that the economic condition of the country is in crisis and the hope of revival of it is very low. He urged the government to sit together and make a way to improve the present economic condition. Echoing the same view, T.K. Rangarajan of CPI-M demanded that the government should give unemployment allowances to the people. T.K.S Elangovan of DMK alleged that the budget is based on false data and the government is trying to hide the data. <br />''<br />''He termed the budget propaganda saying that budget will not help in growth. Anil Desai of Shiv Sena questioned the economic policies of the government. Praful Patel of NCP also criticized the budget saying that the government should reveal how much investment has come under Make in India. Manoj Jha of RJD said, the budget is not intended to address the issues related to food security, unemployment and several problems faced by the economy. He also said, Bihar has been ignored in this budget. Ashok Siddharth of BSP said, allocation of SC and STs in this budget is not as per their population. Jairam Ramesh of Congress alleged that the union budget is not able to address the fundamental problems being faced by the Indian economy. He said, fall in household saving is a matter of concern.<br />''<br />''Arun Singh of BJP spoke in support of the Union Budget saying the government has taken measures to strengthen the Indian economy. He said, under NDA rule, the fiscal deficit is in control which was high during the UPA rule.  Another party MP, Vinay Sahasrabuddhe highlighted several government initiatives for the welfare of the common man. He also questioned the opposition for raising fingers on the Union Budget.  Naresh Gujral of SAD lauded many provisions of the Budget and demanded that the farmers should be given the fair price of their products as per the recommendation of the Swaminathan Committee.  <br />''<br />''On the other hand, Dola Sen of  TMC criticized the Budget. KK Ragesh of CPI(M) also attacked the government alleging that the Budget has failed to address the current economic problems. Amar Patnaik of BJD, A.K. Selvaraj of AIADMK,  Madhusudan  Mistry of Congress, K Ravindra Kumar of TDP, Shiv Pratap Shukla of BJP and others also expressed their views of Union Budget. However, the discussion on the budget remained inconclusive.</span>