Demanding an explanation on what promises the BJP Government at the Centre has kept, Telangana Pradesh Congress Committee president Ponnala Lakshmaiah today flayed the former for increasing the percentage of FDIs in its budget 2014 presented in Parliament.
Talking to mediapersons at Gandhi Bhavan here on Thursday, the Telangana Congress chief criticized that Union Finance Minister Arun Jaitley has done injustice to the new state of Telangana. The 29th State of Telangana should have got more allocations of funds, projects and sops, but nothing was done, he observed. There is no relation in the budget presented and the BJP manifesto, he deplored.
When in the Opposition, the BJP seriously opposed introduction of Foreign Direct Investments, but now blatantly increased it. The BJP Government at the Centre increased FDIs manifold from 25 to 49 per cent, which is unwarranted, he alleged. It has raised the cap of the FDIs in Defence and Insurance sectors. He sought to know how the BJP Government will do justice through Rs 100 crore to implement Girl Child Protection scheme. There are about 30 crore girl children in the country but the allocation is inadequate, he said.
He also faulted the allocation of Rs 7600 crore for developing 100 Smart Cities across the country saying it would not serve the purpose. Lakshmaiah expressed surprise on poor allocation of Rs 150 crore for alternative power production (Rs 100 cr for Thermal and Rs 50 cr for Solar) which will not help the Centre to supply 24 hour power for domestic and industrial needs. He alleged that the budget announced six handloom clusters but ignored Siriscilla town (of Karimnagar district in Telangana) where there is large number of weavers relying on it. He stated that though Prime Minister Narendra Modi gave statements like “Good Days are Ahead, Tough Decisions for Welfare”, why the Telangana State was suddenly ignored. (NSS)
