THIRUVANANTHAPURAM: The interim Union budget presented by Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman is a pro-corporate one, the Congress state leadership has said.
While Congress state president K Sudhakaran maintained that the budget sidelined the poor with the focus being given on the Lok Sabha election, Leader of Opposition V D Satheesan said that it totally ignored the state.
“The Union budget claimed that the government had uplifted 25 crore people from poverty. Still, India is far behind in the global poverty index. The finance minister indulged boasting ahead of the LS polls. Unfortunately, the Centre gave scant regard to the demands of the rubber farmers and totally sidelined the state,” said Sudhakaran. Satheesan cast aspersions on the Centre as he seriously doubted whether Kerala is a part of India. Congress leader Ramesh Chennithala termed the budget as the weakest interim budget Independent India had ever seen.