
KOLLAM: LDF convener T P Ramakrishnan on Sunday criticised the Union Budget, claiming it overlooks the working class and primarily benefits corporate elites. He also accused the Union government of favouring the rich while leaving ordinary citizens to face mounting struggles, besides ignoring Kerala.
“Never before has India seen a budget that insults the poor and common people so blatantly. The Centre’s agenda, driven by religious nationalists with corporate interests, is to increase the wealth of the rich.
Meanwhile, the lives of ordinary citizens are in sharp decline,” Ramakrishnan said at a press conference in Kollam.
He said the budget presented by Union Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman did not even mention the word ‘Kerala’ despite the state submitting several projects to the Centre, none of which were considered.
“The Centre also failed to approve any project to rehabilitate the victims of the Wayanad disaster,” he said.
Ramakrishnan also lambasted the Centre for neglecting the Vizhinjam port, which has garnered global attention, and for failing to take a pro-farmer decision on the import duty impacting Kerala’s rubber cultivators.
“We demanded a Rs 2,000-crore relief package for Wayanad, Rs 1,000 crore for wildlife conservation, and Rs 5,000 crore for Vizhinjam, which is becoming one of the country’s most important ports. Yet, the Centre has not approved any of these. The finance minister did not mention Kerala once in her budget speech,” he alleged.