BJP, Congress criticise Kerala govt over budget

Thiruvananthapuram, Feb 5 (IANS) The BJP and Congress in Kerala have criticised the state government for using the Budget to hit the opposition.

“The sanctity of a budget has been spoiled as the Minister was trying to make political gains and used it as a tool to hit at the opposition,” Leader of the Opposition V.D. Satheesan said.

He said that the figures show that the plan expenditure for the present fiscal has touched a mere 55.24 per cent.

“With just two months to Lok Sabha elections, things will go from bad to worse,” he said.

He said that the agrarian sector has been totally left in the dark and so are numerous other sectors.

“Every project that this budget speaks highly of (Vizhinjam Port, Kochi Metro, Water Metro), was the project of Oommen Chandy. The budget has been an all round disappointment,” Satheesan said.

He said that it has become clear that liquor, land tax, those who have installed solar power plants at homes, fees charged related to all judicial processes will go up.

Slamming the government, the State BJP President K. Surendran said that the budget has got nothing which will provide succor to the people who are in dire straits.

“There is no mention of how the state will come out from the deep financial crisis. There is nothing for KIIFB, which has been proven a fraud,” Surendran said.

He said that to know if the student wing of the CPI-M, SFI, will apologise to the former diplomat T.P. Sreenivasan who was beaten up by the SFI activist when he spoke of the need for Kerala inviting foreign universities to Kerala.

Earlier, Kerala Finance Minister K.N. Balagopal while tabling the budget said that the state is poised for exponential growth as programmes are being planned to attract investment to the tune of Rs 3 lakh crore within the next three years.

Balagopal had earlier presented a deficit budget of Rs 273.94 crores for the fiscal 2024-25.