THIRUVANANTHAPURAM: Kerala Congress-M Chairman K M Mani has said it is unfortunate that no farmer-friendly projects were declared in the budget.  

“The government should have increased the excise duty of rubber to prevent its dip in rubber prices. But that didn’t happen. Not only this, the government didn’t declare any step to protect the price of rubber products. Even when the price of petroleum products went below $70, the Central government was not ready to reduce fuel tax, resulting in runaway prices of essential commodities and making life of common men more difficult,” Mani pointed out.