At a time when the opposition TDP has been accusing the YSRC party leadership of completely surrendering before the BJP government at the Centre, YSRC general secretary and parliamentary party leader V Vijay Sai Reddy criticised the Centre for ignoring the state in the budget.
“The Centre has shown an empty hand to Andhra Pradesh in the Union budget. It appears to be an election-oriented budget meant for Tamil Nadu, Assam, Kerala and Bengal to appease the people in those states that are going to elections shortly,” Sai Reddy told reporters after the budget presentation.
Stating that Andhra Pradesh has been asking for the sanction of metro rail project for the state for the last six years, the YSRC leader said the Centre did not even consider it, but granted massive funds for metro rail projects for Chennai, Kochi and Bengaluru, where elections are due shortly.
“It is unfortunate that there is no mention of metro rail projects for Vijayawada and Visakhapatnam, for which several representations had been given in the past,” Sai Reddy said.
He said not a single railway project worth mentioning was allocated to Andhra Pradesh and the only corridor that connects the state was sanctioned which is of no use to the state. There was no mention of Kisan Rails to the state, he said.
Sai Reddy also criticised the Centre for not talking about payment of arrears to the state to the extent of Rs 4,000 crore towards paddy procurement.
Similarly, the budget did not talk about setting up of central universities in the state and release of funds for employment guarantee scheme, he said.
