Budget 2022-23 does not ensure 'saath', 'vikas' of states: YSR Congress

New Delhi, Feb 9 (IANS) YSR Congress Party MP V Vijayasai Reddy on Wednesday said in the Rajya Sabha that the Union Budget 2022-23 has failed to ensure the 'saath', 'vikas', 'prayas' and 'vishwas' of the states.

Participating in the general discussion on the Union Budget 2022-23, he said that this financial paper was bad for Andhra Pradesh. "What about the atmanirbharta of the states?", he asked.

Andhra Pradesh is the only state that has controlled population but it is not getting the benefit of doing so from the Centre. "Lakhs of people have complained about glitches in the Income Tax portal. The Income Tax deductions should be linked to inflation." Reddy further said.

Taking a dig at PM Modi's slogan of 'Sabka Saath, Sabka Vikas' he said: "Every year one element is added to Sabka Saath Sabka Vikaas. Prayas and Vishwas were added later."

CPI(M) MP Jharna Das Baidya said that the PM Awas Yojana was fine but there should be more allocation for it also. "They give only Rs 1.30 lakh per house. How can you make a house in that fund?", she asked.

Hitting out at the government for the farmers' welfare schemes, she said that allocation for all schemes for farmers and agriculture has been cut down when the farmers are starving. The procurement of the food grains by Food Corporation of India and under decentralisation schemes is down by about 28 per cent.

RJD lawmaker A D Singh said that the government was only paying lip service to Atmanirbhar Bharat. Talking about the fertiliser import from Iran, he said: "We respect UN sanctions, not US sanctions. Why are we scared? Government stopped buying urea from Iran because of the US and price went up from US dollar 300 to US dollar 1,000," he said.

While supporting the Budget, AIADMK lawmaker M Thambidurai appreciated the efforts of the Modi government in protecting the economy during the pandemic. "States are not getting sufficient funds after the implementation of GST. The Centre should give more funds and arrears, he said.

Samajwadi Party MP Sukhram Singh Yadav, during his speech, asked how the farmers will benefit from drone farming given the lack of education.