CPI (Marxist) Polit Bureau member B.V. Raghavulu has criticized the Central government for meting out injustice to three southern States — Telangana, Andhra Pradesh and Kerala — by making paltry allocations in the budget introduced in Parliament recently.
Mr. Raghavulu said the budget did not reflect the aspirations of the people and it in fact appeared to pose hardships to the common man. There was no mention of steps to overcome the economic slowdown gripping different sectors and the budget can be best summed up as “anti-people”.
Addressing a press conference here on Tuesday, Mr. Raghavulu said the chief ministers of Telangana and Andhra Pradesh should take the initiative and join forces to protect the rights of the two States.
On the other issues, he criticized the BJP leaders for their criticism of Mahatma Gandhi as also their assertion that those opposed to the Citizenship Amendment Act and National Register of Citizens should be shot. The BJP leadership should ensure that its representatives took back their comments which were not in the interest of democracy.
In this context, Mr. Raghavulu appreciated the Telangana government for announcing its resolve against the implementation of the CAA. At the same time, the government should ensure passage of a resolution through the Assembly that it would not implement the National Population Register.
CPI (M) State secretary Tammineni Veerabhadram wanted the government to announce that it would not spare its staff for the implementation of CAA/NPR. The CPI (M) had decided to launch a door-to-door campaign against the ill-effects of the CAA/NPR and the campaign would be held between March 16 and 23.
He said the budget presented by the Union government was against the interests of the State as it did not contain adequate allocations in line with the requirements and there was no mention of steps that would be taken to fulfil the promises made to Telangana at the time of reorganization in 2014. The State, he said, should launch a struggle against the Centre for securing its justified allocations.
