Budget: Centre Shows Empty Hand For Andhra

YSRC party MP V. Vijayasai Reddy slammed the Union Budget tabled by Union finance minister Nirmala Sitharaman and said that it did not contain anything beneficial to Andhra Pradesh. The Budget has been prepared to do good only to Kerala, West Bengal, Tamil Nadu and Assam, which are heading for Assembly elections this year, he said.

In all the sectors, these four states bagged the lion’s share of benefits, he pointed out.

The finance minister has been trying to brand it as a ‘never before budget’ but in fact, it can be said to be the worst of all, he said.

The YCP MP said that the only positive aspect for AP in the entire Budget is allocation of Rs 35,000 crore for preparation and distribution of the Covid-19 vaccine.

He said that the Budget showed stepmotherly love towards Andhra Pradesh. Reddy lamented that funds were not earmarked for Metro Rail projects in Vijayawada and Vizag, even when the YCP has been demanding for it while Metro Rail Phase-II funds were sanctioned for Chennai, Nagpur, Nashik, Bengaluru, Kochi and other similar projects.

The Budget did not grant anything to make Andhra Pradesh self-reliant, he ciriticised. He slammed the Budget for ignoring sanctions to the Polavaram project or railway projects in the state. He reminded that the YCP has been asking for railway line between Kadapa-Bengaluru. It was not sanctioned, he said.

He said that the freight corridors between Nagpur and Vijayawada, Kharagpur and Vijayawada would do no good to the state than allow the authorities to run more passenger trains in those routes.

He faulted both the Congress and BJP governments at the Centre for not granting special category status to Andhra Pradesh. He demanded that one of the four virology centres sanctioned in the country to be set up in Andhra Pradesh. Similarly, the YCP MPs are also demanding that a textile park  should also be established in the state.

The country needs a revivalist or development-oriented budget but Ms Sitharaman presented a survivalist one, he pointed out.

At the same time, he also said that the Andhra Pradesh government’s Aarogya Sri scheme which covers 2,146 medical procedures is better planned than the Union government’s Ayushman Bharat which covers 1,350 procedures.

He said that the Budget did not give any hope to the unemployed too. There is no benefit the Budget has promised for AP, he added.