YSRCP on Union Budget: Centre gave ‘zero’ to AP; Rs 15,000 crores is loan surety
The Centre will facilitate special financial support through multilateral development agencies for the development of Amaravati
By Newsmeter Network Published on 23 July 2024 12:23 PM GMT
Amaravati: The Central government has given ‘zero’ to Andhra Pradesh in the Union Budget 2024-25 presented by finance minister Nirmala Sitharaman on Tuesday, the YSR Congress Party alleged.
In its official X account, the party said the Rs 15,000 crores as funds for the capital Amaravati are nothing but a surety to be given by the Centre to get a loan.
“Yellow media and TDP have been making noise since morning saying that Rs 15,000 crores has been allocated to AP in the Central government budget. But the Centre says it will give guarantee to AP to raise Rs 15,000 crores as a loan from various institutions,” the YSRCP said in the post in Telugu.
The Centre will facilitate special financial support through multilateral development agencies for the development of Amaravati as the capital with Rs 15,000 crores being arranged in the current financial year and additional amounts in future, Sitharaman said in the budget.
Budget is an election manifesto, says Sharmila
On the other side, Andhra Pradesh Congress Committee (APCC) president YS Sharmila stated that the Union Budget 2024-25 is nothing but an election manifesto, and had made no mention of the special category status for the state and alleged that the BJP-led NDA government at the Centre has cheated it again.
“The Centre announced an election manifesto, not a budget, with many promises and proper figures given. Chandrababu Naidu has asked for only Rs 1 lakh crores while the State needs approximately Rs 12 lakh crores. The budget of Rs 15,000 crores allocated for Andhra is for Amaravati, but the Centre hasn’t mentioned allocation to Polavaram,” said YS Sharmila.
The opposition YSRCP slammed the Centre and said it given a 'zero' to Andhra Pradesh in the Budget.
Sharmila highlighted that the NDA government promised to honour the commitments made in the Andhra Pradesh Reorganisation Act, 2014 but noted that it left the most important of it all- special category status (SCS).
"They (Centre) said they will honour bifurcation promises but there was no mention of SCS. Wasn't SCS the foremost of all. In Tirupati, (Narendra) Modi promised to give special status for 10 years," she said, addressing a press conference at the Congress office in Vijayawada.
Ridiculing the Rs 15,000 crore funds promised for Andhra Pradesh capital city as pittance, Sharmila said Bihar, ruled by NDA partner JD(U), with just 12 MPs managed to procure higher financial allocations of Rs 26,000 crore.
Urging Chief Minister N Chandrababu Naidu, who is leading the TDP-led government in the state to respond to these developments, she advised him to realise that the saffron party is allegedly deceiving Andhra Pradesh again.
Further, she wanted to know about Visakhapatnam railway zone not getting a mention and demanded that the port city and Vijayawada needed Metro Rail projects.
According to Sharmila, Andhra Pradesh has been repeatedly cheated over the past 10 years and called on Naidu to withdraw support to the BJP at the Centre.
Delving on the lack of timelines and financial specifics on some budget commitments to infrastructure, backwards areas and others, the Congress leader said that this was not a budget but a manifesto.
