Thiruvananthapuram: The Opposition Congress in Kerala on Sunday questioned the credibility of the state budget presented by Finance Minister K N Balagopal and termed it a politically motivated document.
Addressing media soon after the budget presentation, Leader of the Opposition said the finance minister ruined the sanctity of the budget document by filling it with political announcements and criticism of the opposition.
“Is budget a document to criticise opposition,” he asked.
Satheesan questioned the credibility of the budget citing the discrepancies between the plan expenditures announced in the previous budget and the actual spending.
“Only 55.42 per cent of the expenditure announced last year has been spent so far with only one-and-a-half month remaining in the current fiscal. In agriculture sector, only 38 per cent of the allocation has been spent. For rural development, it’s 54 per cent. In cooperative sector only 8.84 per cent, industries 33 per cent, scientific services 29 per cent and social services 54 per cent,” he said. This is the least spending in the recent history, he said.
He said the finance minister has made the announcements using cliched communist jargons only to cover up the real situation of the state’s economy.
He said the government totally ignored the agriculture sector in the budget even as it s facing a huge crisis. He said the government ridiculed the rubber farmers by announcing a meagre Rs 10 hike in the minimum support price for their crop.
“With the meagre hike the government has ignored and ridiculed the rubber farmers. The LDF government in its manifesto has promised a minimum support price of Rs 250 per kg. In its third year, the government has increased only Rs 10. Even the existing MSP of Rs 170 per kg has been pending for long. Last year, 8.5 lakh people applied for the MSP. This year only 32,000 could apply as the government turned the website off,” Satheesan alleged.