False promise made by Union Finance minister to Puducherry, alleges Congress MP V Vaithilingam

PUDUCHERRY: Lok Sabha member V Vaithilingam on Monday said that Union Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman has made a false promise of providing more fund allocation  to Puducherry, while she was releasing the BJP's election manifesto for Puducherry Assembly elections, at the end of March.

In a statement, Vaithilingam said that in the election manifesto, one of the promises was to increase the central government's annual financial allocation for Puducherry from 25 per cent of the budgetary allocation to 45 per cent, as it did for Jammu & Kashmir.

As an MP, he had raised the question on July 19 regarding the improvement of the financial resources for Puducherry in the ongoing parliamentary session. Responding to his question, Union Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman has said that the decision to allocate funds to the states for 2021-2022 was taken in October 2020 and therefore there is no possibility of increasing the allocation to Puducherry.

Citing this reply, Vaithilingam said, "Didn't she know that while releasing the election manifesto last  March? But in fact, she has made such a false promise in the election manifesto in order to deceive people and get them to vote."

"Now the first false promise has come out. All the false promises of the BJP will continue to come out like this," added Vaithilingam.