Chennai: “I welcome the Central budget presented by Mrs Nirmala Sitharaman, which has new policies for India’s future growth, besides good schemes. It is also a visionary budget,” said Tamilnadu Chief Minister K Palaniswami yesterday.
The CM said Finance Minister’s proposals such as interest subsidy to SMEs and other sops to small traders were a welcome one. He further said FDI in aerospace, media, insurance and animation will help attract investment in these sectors in the State. He issued a statement seeking adequate allocation to Bharat Mala to improve rural roads in Tamilnadu, expedition of approval for the second phase of Chennai Metro rail project and nod for Coimbatore and Madurai Metro rail projects. Palaniswami also sought allocation of funds for linking of Godavari, Cauvery, Vaigai and Kundar rivers. He further said Tamilnadu must be consulted on certain disinvestment proposals.
Meanwhile, DMK chief M K Stalin termed the Budget as ‘sweet’ for corporates and ‘bitter’ for the poor people. He said no Tamilnadu-specific projects of funds to mitigate the prevailing water crisis were announced. He slammed the increase in price of petrol and opposed the levy of customs duty on newsprint, he said it was a clever attempt at muzzling freedom of expression. He further added that the budget was a precursor for initiatives such as simultaneous polls and one education system.
AMMK leader T T V Dhinakaran said Narendra Modi government’s budget was compilation of contradictions. GST reforms and increasing job opportunities were not touch upon, he said. He said increase in petrol and diesel will directly affect the people. He too criticised the Centre for not allocating funds to mitigate water problems in the State.
He further slammed the Centre for announcing that India would be Open Defecation Free (ODF) by another two months even though lakhs of houses don’t have toilets. He further questioned how the ‘Study in India’ initiative would be possible when many educational institutions in the country lacked adequate infrastructure and teaching staff.
MDMK founder Vaiko said there was no indication of change in the Union Budget.