Leader of the Opposition Ramesh Chennithala has slammed the Union Budget for offering no hope to Keralites laid low by the COVID-19 pandemic.
He said here on Monday that the Budget singularly lacked any measures to buoy the foundering prices of rubber and other cash crops. It disregarded the long-standing demand for an All India Institute of Medical Sciences (AIIMS) campus in Kerala.
The ₹65,000-crore Mumbai-Kanyakumari corridor passing through Kerala (600 km), the allocation for the second phase of the Kochi Metro Rail, and the Ernakulam fishing harbour development had found mention in previous Union Budgets. So, there was nothing new in these proposals. Also, railway expansion had bypassed Kerala totally, he said. Mr. Chennithala said the State and Central Budgets were comparable in one aspect: making false promises to voters. The Budget had no proposal to increase the productivity and wages of workers.
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