Former Andhra Pradesh Chief Minister and Telugu Desam Party (TDP) President Chandrababu Naidu on Friday lashed out at the Centre and said that the Union Budget was 'disappointing' and did not address the wishes of the people of the state.
"The budget is not in accordance with the wishes of the people of Andhra Pradesh. The centre made budgetary allocations to the northeastern states but ignored Andhra Pradesh, which is reeling under severe financial crisis. The budget has badly disappointed the people of the state. Not even a single paisa is allocated for educational institutes like IIT, NIT, IIM, IIIT," Naidu was quoted as saying.
Stating that the Centre did not address the severe revenue deficit that the state was reeling under, due to its bifurcation in 2014, Naidu also pointed out that the promise of Special Category Status (SCS) and other issues mentioned in the Andhra Pradesh Reorganization Act were also not addressed.
He also took issue with the Centre not making any allocations for the state's Polavaram Irrigation Project, capital city Amaravati, metro rail projects in Vijayawada and Visakhapatnam, and the Kadapa steel plant.
The YSRCP government in Andhra Pradesh on Friday also said that they were disappointed with the allocations made to the state in the Union Budget presented by Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman.
Speaking to reporters in New Delhi, YSRCP Parliamentary Party leader Vijayasai Reddy said, "There is nothing specifically allocated to Andhra. We have got a little in each of the schemes announced but it is clear that the Centre did not take Andhra into consideration while preparing the Budget."
However, the YSRCP welcomed certain announcements including the pension benefits announced to retail traders and shopkeepers and dealing with Non-Performing Assets (NPAs). Union Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman on Friday presented her first Budget for 2019-20. This is the full budget of the second term of the Narendra Modi government.