The Left parties and various civil society organisations on Saturday called for State bandh on February 8 to protest against the injustice meted out to Andhra Pradesh in the Union Budget 2018-19.
CPI(M) State Secretary P. Madhu said the budget did not make any allocation for the capital city Amaravati, the revenue deficit, the proposed railway zone, the steel plant in Kadapa district and above all what was due under the A.P Reorganisation Act.
“The Central government left us in the lurch but did not miss out on the politically prudent thing, which is to fork out substantial sums to poll-bound States. For instance, Karnataka got handsome allocations,” Mr. Madhu observed.
‘No allocation’
CPI Secretary Muppalla Nageswara Rao said Finance Minister Arun Jaitley said the quantum of farm credit had been increased from ₹10 lakh crore to ₹11 lakh crore but not a single paisa was allocated for it, which was nothing but passing the buck on to the banks.
There were many other things which other States got but Andhra Pradesh was implicitly asked to fend for itself in these times of distress, they said in a resolution.
