Union Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman on Tuesday hit out at the Opposition over the discontent and "misleading campaign" it led on the Union Budget.
Speaking in the Lok Sabha, she countered the opposition bloc's allegations of the Budget favouring Bihar and Andhra Pradesh.
Sitharaman explained that just because a state wasn't named in the Budget, doesn't mean it was ignored. She noted that Rs 818 crore was provided to the LDG government of Kerala in the form viable gap funding.
Citing documents of the Budget from the Congress-led UPA regime, the Finance Minister said that as many as 26 states were not named in the 2009-10 Union Budget presentation.
"The Budget speech of 2004-05 did not take the name of 17 states. Did money not go to those states? If they stopped the money, then they can raise this issue. 18 states weren't named in 2005-06, 16 were not named in 2007-08. 26 states weren't named in 2009-10. The 2009-10 full Budget didn't name 20 states," Sitharaman was quoted as saying by India Today.
The Finance Minister presented her seventh consecutive Budget in the Lok Sabha on July 23, wherein she allocated Rs 15,000 crore for the development of Andhra Pradesh's capital city of Amaravati. And for Bihar, she allocated Rs 26,000 crore, dedicated to road connectivity projects.
The Opposition had accused the BJP-led Centre of favouring the two states because of it's coalition with the Telugu Desam Party (Andhra) and JD(U).
She also referred to the centre's Budget allocation to the Union Territory of Jammu and Kashmir, saying that a substantial financial support of Rs 17,000 crore was provided.
Of this amount, Rs 12,000 crore towards the funding of the Jammu and Kashmir Police's cost. "That's a burden we want to take on our shoulders so that J&K has more flexibility to spend money on development activities. An additional central assistance of Rs 5,000 crore has also been provided," she was cited as saying.
Additionally, she also cited the SBI research report from July 2024, saying that the nation created 12.5 crore jobs between 2014 and 2023 (Modi government regime), in comparison to only 2.9 crore during the 10 years of the UPA Govt.
"The unemployment rate has declined from 6% in 2017-18 to a low of 3.2% in 2022-23. Youth unemployment for the age group 15-29 years has declined sharply from 17.8% in 2017-18 to 10% in 2022-23," she said in the Lok Sabha.
