The Education Minister, Punjab, Aruna Chaudhary has termed the Union Budget as the one completely lacking visionary approach especially with regard to the educational sector. In a statement here today, the minister said that Punjab has got a raw deal in the budget as the novel and path breaking initiatives undertaken by the State Government to bolster educational sphere would suffer for want of support from the Union Government. Coming down heavily on the budget, the minister said that the fact that education field as a whole has got just 6.68 percent increase over the last budget lays bare the intentions of the Union Government and raises an important query that how it would manage the newly proposed Ekalavya Model Residential Schools with such a paltry increase. Castigating the budget further, Chaudhary said that building institutions of excellence as enumerated in the budget won't serve any purpose as the emphasis should instead have been laid on maintaining and efficiently running the existing institutions like a well oiled machine. The minister also decried the budget for providing no assistance to the game changing step of starting pre-primary classes undertaken by the Punjab Government. The minister describing the budget as directionless said that it would have been much better if the strengthening of the existing infrastructure would have been given due consideration by the Union Government in the budget.