YSR Congress Parliamentary Party (YSRCPP) leader V. Vijaya Sai Reddy said the Central government did grave injustice to Andhra Pradesh by making no substantial allocations to it in the Union Budget while giving many boons to the States where Assembly elections are due to be held soon. The Centre once again dodged the issue of the State’s legitimate right to Special Category Status (SCS), which was an assurance given in the Parliament at the time of bifurcation, he stated, while observing that the only useful thing to the masses is the provision of ₹35,000 crore for the COVID vaccination programme.
Addressing media persons along with YSRCP floor leader in the Lok Sabha P.V. Mithun Reddy and other MPs in New Delhi on Monday, Mr. Vijaya Sai Reddy said the Budget had no mention of the revised cost estimate (₹55,656 crore) of the Polavaram project. The Metro Rail Projects (MRPs) in Bangalore, Chennai and Nagpur got massive allocations even as the MRPs in Visakhapatnam and Vijayawada remained non-starters mainly for want of funds.
The funds given for the freight corridor between Kharagpur and Vijayawada would be of no great use to the State, and there was no mention of the Kadapa-Bangalore railway line, he commented.
Virology lab
On the health care front, Mr. Vijaya Sai Reddy said the Budget was silent about the demand to set up a virology lab in the State.
There was no commitment about establishing a textile park in the State. The Centre should set up a Kendriya Vidyalaya in each district as the State government contemplated to carve 13 new districts out of the existing ones (total 26). As far as the tax reforms were concerned, the Centre ignored the popular demand to increase the standard deduction to ₹1,00,000.
Mr. Vijaya Sai Reddy further said the sanction of a fishing hub in Visakhapatnam was of little consequence as the State government undertook the establishment of eight fishing harbours on its own.
The Central government’s share in the PM Kisan programme remained the same as earlier. Not a single rupee was given for the establishment of new medical colleges in the State, he added.