Congress-led UDF in Kerala urges Left govt to protest against Centre over neglect in union budget

Thiruvananthapuram, Jul 28 (PTI) The Left-led state government in Kerala should not delay the protest against the union government which has "ignored" Kerala in the recently presented Union Budget, the opposition Congress-led UDF said on Sunday.

UDF Convenor M M Hassan said it is suspected that there is some ulterior political motive behind the delay in protest by the state government.

"The ruling CPI(M) has protested against the neglect of the union government against Kerala but the state government has not registered any major protest in this regard," Hassan alleged.

The senior Congress leader alleged that even though Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan had said that the budget was discriminatory towards the state, no steps have been taken so far for a joint protest against the union government.

"If there was any sincerity in the statement of the chief minister, he would have called a special session of the assembly to protest or would have organised a protest in New Delhi with all the MPs from Kerala," Hassan said.

He claimed that this was for the first time in the history of the state that Kerala faced such neglect in the union budget.

Kerala's ruling CPI(M) had protested against the alleged neglect of the state in the bydget presented by Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman in Parliament last Tuesday, terming it a serious matter. PTI RRT RRT ANE