With both the Pinarayi Vijayan-led Left government and the Congress-led opposition slamming the third Narendra Modi government's first Union budget for ignoring the needs and demands of Kerala, state BJP President K. Surendran on Friday, July 26, challenged them to a discussion.
"With regards to the tax allocation, this time, a record allocation of over Rs 3,000 crore has been set aside for Kerala and if one compares... what the then UPA governments set aside for Kerala was a mere Rs 400 crore. Just look at the allocation made to Central institutes in Kerala as it is one of the highest ever made and yet baseless allegations are being floated by both the ruling Left and the Congress which is blindly supporting the state government, without even taking a look into what has been allocated," he said.
"With regards to the railway development also, a sum of Rs 3,011 crore has been earmarked for various projects. We are ready for a discussion on the budget and we wish those who claim nothing has been given to come up for it," Surendran added.
The ruling Left has called for a statewide protest against how Kerala's Rs 24,000 crore package request was not considered but also how there was no mention of the state at all in the budget.