Thiruvananthapuram, Feb 13 State BJP president K.Surendran on Monday asked Kerala Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan that if the Centre is not giving the state its due, why is he not going to Delhi to stage a protest.
"Vijayan, State Finance Minister K.N.Balagopal and CPI(M) state secretary are lying that the Centre is not giving the state its due. Wish to know if this is true then why are they not approaching the Centre in writing," said Surendran. Why are the 29 MPs not doing anything in Parliament, he added.
Surendran went on to point out the state's share of the revenue is fixed by the Finance Commission and 41 per cent is awarded to states.
"It's wrong to state that BJP-ruled states get a bigger share, which just cannot happen and in effect a state like Uttar Pradesh is getting less than what the UPA government used to allocate during their regime. Blatant lies are being said when Kerala is to receive Rs 780 crore from the GST Council, they say Rs 20,000 crores is due," added Surendran.
He further pointed out that during the UPA regime 2009-14, Kerala got Rs 55,058 crore, while during the Modi rule 2017-22, the state got Rs 2,29,844.
"Kerala receives one of the highest allocations when it comes to revenue deficit grant and the Centre has given Rs 53,000 crores. If Vijayan feels the Centre has ignored the state's needs, then he should go to Delhi and stage a protest," said Surendran.
Ever since Balagopal presented the state budget on February 3, and proposed a Rs 2 cess on fuel products, the state has been witnessing an uproar and the Congress-led opposition and the BJP are on a warpath accusing Vijayan of misgovernance and extravagance.
Earlier in the day in the Lok Sabha, Union Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman in reply to Kerala Lok Sabha member N.K.Premachandran raising this issue, said Kerala has not submitted the AG certified certificate to be submitted to the GST Council from 2017 onwards and without doing that they are blaming the Centre and when it's done things will be cleared.
Disclaimer: This post has been auto-published from an agency feed without any modifications to the text and has not been reviewed by an editor