The State budget for 2013-14 did a lot of injustice to Uttarandhra by abandoning the major irrigation project of Uttarandhra Sujala Sravanti which was planned to irrigate lakhs of acres and provide drinking water and the proposal to develop the Narsipatnam to Bhadrachalam road via Agency area was ignored, Floor Leader of Progressive Democratic Front in Legislative Council M.V.S. Sarma said.
There was no support in the budget to support IT and no mention of establishing a major literary and cultural centre to mark the 150 anniversary of Gurajada Apparao. Many sections expecting succour were disappointed and the budget would receive the dubious distinction of levying highest burden on the people, Mr. Sarma said.
CPI(M) district secretary Ch. Narasinga Rao termed the budget as the most deceitful of all the annual exercises of the present Congress government. The sanctity of figures was totally removed and also the special budget for agriculture proved to be another drama, he said. The government also drastically reduced the subsidy on power. There was no provision to increase generation by AP Genco.
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It was a jugglery of figures performed by the government ahead of the elections next year, said CPI district secretary J.V. Satyanarayana Murthy. The CPI city council organised a protest near Gurajada statue and burnt an effigy of State government.
YSR Congress’ Visakha North Assembly constituency in-charge G.V. Raviraju said the budget was a jugglery of figures.
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The business community in the city is disappointed with the State budget presented in the Assembly on Monday with the cloth merchants announcing an indefinite strike from Tuesday in protest against not excluding textiles from Sensitive Commodities Act and not scrapping Value Added Tax (VAT).
“As per the decision taken at the meeting held at Guntur, we will go ahead with the strike from tomorrow. All textile shops will go for complete shutdown until our just demands are met,” Vizagapatnam Cloth Merchants’ Association president K. Mallikarjuna Rao said.
The budget has failed to cheer up the traders as they say there is nothing to ensure reliable supply of power and water – the main requisite for creating conducive business environment. They termed the promise of sectoral growth of 10.5 per cent for industries an empty rhetoric.
Vizagpatam Chamber of Commerce & Industries president Kancharla Ramabraham said investors would not come unless the government ensured reliable supply of water and power.