Kathmandu, May 30 :  The main opposition Nepali Congress (NC) said the budget unveiled for the fiscal year 2077/78 BS (2020/21) was aimed at catching public attention instead of delivering results.     
The budget has done its best to give assurances to the people, but it emphasized the impractical programmes, according to the party.    
A meeting of the NC parliamentary party held Friday assessed that the budget failed to introduce programmes having a nature of immediate implementation and capable of boosting up national economy when the entire industrial, tourism, educational, banking and financial sectors were paralyzed by the COVID-19 crisis.    
The party blamed that the budget failed to come up with substantive plans to address issues facing the private sector enterprises and workers hit by the crisis. The NC believed the government could not give priority to those plans capable of making economic activities dynamic by creating suitable and sufficient jobs for facing employment crisis likely in the future due to the impact of COVID-19.    
NC Chief Whip Balkrishna Khand said the government brought the general budget as in the past by ignoring the adverse and unusual atmosphere at home. ''It seems difficult to implement the budget based on a huge foreign and internal loan when the collection of revenues is shrinking and the trend is going to be more intense in the future.''    
In the meeting chaired by NC President and parliamentary leader Sher Bahadur Deuba, former finance Minister Dr Ram Sharan Mahat, National Planning Commission's Vice Chairs Dr Jagadish Chandra Pokhrel, Dr Govinda Raj Pokhrel, and Dr Swarnim Wagle and economist Dr Bishwa Poudel commented on various aspects of budget, highlighting its shortcomings.    
More, the meeting condemned the attack on the house of NC leader and former Minister Mohammad Aftab Alam in Rautahat. It may be noted that a mob of over 50 people on May 22 allegedly reached Alam's residence and resorted to vandalism. The party has demanded a fair investigation into the incident and action against the guilty.    
Similarly, the major opposition party expressed its sorrow over the killings of five and the missing of one in the May 23 Soti incident occurred at Chaurjahari Municipality of Rukum Paschim. The party, condemning the violent incident, demanded the government to bring facts surrounding the incident and ensure justice to the victims.    
Extending tributes to the dead, it has extended heartfelt condolences to the bereaved families and wished for speedy recovery of the injured ones.