FM Sitharaman pins down Oppn on allocation of funds to states

New Delhi, July 30 : Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharman on Tuesday put the opposition on the mat for alleging that Budget 2024-25 had not made any allocation to states as their names were not mentioned in her speech on July 23.

The Finance Minister cited budget speeches of the Congress-led UPA government which in some years had not mentioned as many 26 states by name. In the other years of the UPA rule, she cited that 12 to 20 states were not mentioned in budget speeches.

"Does this mean that the UPA government ignored these states?" She asked to drive home her point that if the name of a state is not mentioned in the budget speech it does not mean that the state will not get any funds from the Centre.

She said the opposition was distorting facts to spread falsehoods among the people.

FM Sitharaman then cited data from the budget to show that the Budget had allocated funds to opposition-ruled states.

She pointed out random examples from the budget such as Congress-ruled Himachal Pradesh being allocated Rs 1,900 crore for a bulk drug plant and both Kerala and Telangana being allocated funds for setting up textile parks.

Similarly, large railway projects have been announced which will cover projects in opposition-ruled states such as West Bengal and Telangana, she added.

She also pointed out that another big railway project entailing an investment of Rs 12,314 crore for doubling railway lines in Telangana and Maharashtra has also been announced even though the names of the states had not been mentioned in her budget speech.

Citing more “random examples”, the Finance Minister said that Rs 9,667 crore had been allocated for a major highway project (NH 66) in Kerala even though the name of the state was not mentioned in her speech.

Similarly, the Delhi-Amritsar-Katra highway project with a massive allocation of Rs 18,274 crore would benefit Punjab, Haryana and J&K but the names of these states had not figured in her budget speech.