Leaders from poll-bound Kerala, West Bengal, Tamil Nadu slam Union Budget, Assam CM welcomes it

Leaders of the ruling parties in election-bound Kerala, Tamil Nadu and West Bengal slammed the Union Budget on Sunday for overlooking their states, even as Himanta Biswa Sarma, the chief minister of Assam, where polls are also due this year, welcomed it.

Leaders of the ruling parties in election-bound Kerala, Tamil Nadu and West Bengal slammed the Union Budget on Sunday for ''overlooking'' their states, even as Himanta Biswa Sarma, the chief minister of Assam, where polls are also due this year, welcomed it. While Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman did not make any big-ticket announcements for the poll-bound states in her Budget speech, there were proposals for high-speed rail links for Chennai, an ecologically-sustainable mountain trail at Podhigai Malai in the Western Ghats and a rare-earth minerals corridor in southern states. A National Institute of Mental Health and Neuro Sciences (NIMHANS) would be established in Assam, Sitharaman announced. She also proposed a new dedicated freight corridor linking Dankuni in West Bengal to Surat in Gujarat, an integrated East Coast Industrial Corridor with a major node at Durgapur and tourism-focussed interventions under the Centre's Purvodaya vision. West Bengal Chief Minister and TMC supremo Mamata Banerjee slammed the Budget, calling it ''directionless and visionless Humpty Dumpty'', while Trinamool Congress national general secretary Abhishek Banerjee accused the leaders of the ruling Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) at the Centre of branding people from West Bengal as ''Bangladeshis''. ''This Budget is directionless, visionless, actionless and anti-people. It is also anti-women, anti-farmer, anti-education and against the SCs, STs and OBC.... There is nothing on offer for Bengal ... in the Humpty Dumpty budget,'' Mamata Banerjee told reporters in Kolkata. ''For West Bengal, what have they given? Nothing. They talk big, but offer nothing,'' the TMC chief added. Referring to proposals related to infrastructure, she said the Centre ''merely repeated'' projects already announced. ''And, we have already announced six economic corridors. What they have said about the three corridors is a lie,'' she asserted. In Delhi, her nephew Abhishek Banerjee said Sitharaman did not mention West Bengal even once in her 85-minute speech. ''It is the Union government and its ministers, the ones who presented the Budget, they call us Bangladeshis. Bengal was not even mentioned. The Jal Jeevan Mission money has been stopped, they have not even fulfilled old promises...,'' the MP from West Bengal's Diamond Harbour said. In Kerala, the Budget was slammed by both the ruling Left Democratic Front (LDF) and the Congress-led United Democratic Front (UDF). Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan strongly criticised the Budget, saying it has exposed the BJP-led Centre's continued discrimination and neglect towards the southern state. In a statement, the CPI(M) leader accused the Union finance minister of deliberately overlooking the fact that Kerala is also part of India. He said long-standing demands of the state, including an All India Institute of Medical Sciences (AIIMS), seven high-speed corridors for railway development and a special package for the Vizhinjam port, were completely ignored, and also expressed disappointment over the finance commission allocation, noting that the rejection of the demand to increase Kerala's share, which remains at 41 per cent, undermines federal principles. Leader of Opposition in the Kerala Assembly V D Satheesan expressed scepticism over the rare-earth mineral corridor announced in the Union Budget, alleging that it could be an attempt to hand over the state's resources to corporates. ''It should not be turned into an opportunity for corporates to steal Kerala's rare-earth resources. I view the project with scepticism,'' he said. In Tamil Nadu, Chief Minister and DMK leader M K Stalin said the Budget was hugely disappointing for his state. The interests of Tamil Nadu have been completely ignored and the budget has got nothing for the poor, women, farmers and the marginalised, he said. ''As Tamil Nadu gears for the Assembly election, we expected at least this year that the state would be visible to the eyes of the Union BJP government and our voices will be heard by them. However, this year too, the BJP government has delivered only disappointment,'' Stalin said in a statement issued in Chennai. Opposition AIADMK, which is a part of the BJP-led NDA, meanwhile welcomed the Budget. AIADMK general secretary and Leader of Opposition in the Tamil Nadu Assembly Edappadi K Palaniswami hailed the Budget proposals and said these would lead to growth and several initiatives would benefit the southern state. Citing specific initiatives, Palaniswami said it will benefit Tamil Nadu's textile hubs, such as Tiruppur and Karur, while asserting that proposals like high-speed rail corridors linking Chennai will bring a big change. Sarma hailed the Union Budget as a ''reform-oriented'' one, from which the entire eastern region, including Assam, will ''benefit meaningfully''. He said the Budget has maintained a fine balance between India's global aspirations and grassroots development. The Assam chief minister pointed out that the Budget also has a provision of Rs 6,812 crore for the development of the northeast, underlining the Narendra Modi government's sustained focus on the region. ''The Budget's continued emphasis on fiscal discipline and price stability is equally commendable,'' he added. West Bengal, Kerala, Tamil Nadu and Assam, along with Puducherry, are scheduled to go to polls in a few months, with the terms of their assemblies ending in May-June.

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