Opposition accuses govt of ignoring states in Union Budget 2024, stages walkout

The Indian National Developmental Inclusive Alliance INDIA bloc parties led by the Congress staged a walkout from the Rajya Sabha on Wednesday The Opposition has accused the government of ldquoignoringrdquo all the states except Andhra Pradesh and Bihar in the Union Budget 2024Responding to the allegations Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman said the accusation is outrageous and that no previous budget including the ones presented by the Congress had covered all the states of the country reported PTIAfter VicePresident and Rajya Sabha Chairman Jagdeep Dhankhar rejected notices under Rule 267 that called for the suspension of the listed agenda to take up the issue Leader of Opposition and Congress president Mallikarjun Kharge said the Union Budget 2024 provided funds and schemes for only two states Bihar and Andhra Pradesh No other states found any mention in the budget he said terming it a kursibachao documentThe ruling Bharatiya Janata Party BJP lost the majority in the recently concluded general election and had to seek support from the Janata Dal United which is ruling in Bihar and Telugu Desam Party TDP which is in power in Andhra Pradesh for forming the government Both JDU and TDP have been demanding special economic packages for their statesIn the Union Budget presented on Tuesday Sitharaman announced Rs 60000 crore for Andhra Pradesh and pledged support to get Rs 15000crore assistance from multilateral agencies for the southern stateKharge said the Congress and the other parties in the INDIA bloc ldquocondemn the discriminationAs Dhankhar gave Sitharaman the floor to respond Kharge led the Opposition bloc out of the HouseThe finance minister said she did not name many states either in the interim budget presented in February ahead of the general election or in the full budget tabled in the Parliament on Tuesday but that does not mean that government schemes are not working for the statesCiting Maharashtrarsquos example she said that though the state was not named in either of the budgets the Union Cabinet approved the Rs 76000crore Vadhavan port project in Dahanu last monthDid Maharashtra get ignored because I did not mention its name Rs 76000 crore has been announced for that Vadhavan project she said adding that she can go on to cite several other states that have got major projectsIf the speech does not mention the name of a particular state does it mean that the schemes and programmes of the Government of India the externallyaided assistance which we obtain from the World Bank ADB Asian Development Bank Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank AIIB and other such institutions do not go to these states They go as per a routine she saidThe expenditure statement of the government gives out the itemwise allocation the finance minister pointed outThis is a deliberate attempt by the Opposition parties led by the Congress to give an impression to people that nothing has been given to our states I would challenge the Congress party on all the budget speeches they have delivered In each of the budget speeches have they named every state of the country she asked This is an outrageous allegation which is not acceptable the finance minister addedAs the MPs belonging to Opposition parties returned to the House the finance minister said the Trinamool Congress TMC had alleged that nothing was provided to West Bengal in the budget but the fact is that several schemes launched by Prime Minister Narendra Modi in the past 10 years have not been implemented in the stateHer statement was met with vociferous opposition from TMC members who said the BJPled Centre owes Rs 1 lakh crore to West BengalDhankhar said 20 hours have been allocated for a discussion on the Union Budget 2024 and the MPs as well as the finance minister will get adequate time to raise issues and respondWith PTI inputs