THIRUVANANTHAPURAM: Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan said that Union Budget had rejected almost all the proposals put forward by the state to tackle the ill-effects of demonetisation. “The issues we had flagged during pre-budget consultations have been ignored,” the Chief Minister said. Demonetisation had put the cooperative sector in deep crisis, he said. “The state had asked the Centre to remove controls clamped over cooperative banks in the wake of demonetisation. We also wanted cooperative banks to be given the freedom enjoyed by commercial banks,” Mr Vijayan said in a statement here on Wednesday. “Both these demands, which would have gone a long way in providing relief to people dependent on cooperative banks, have been rejected,” he said.
Increased allocation for MGNREGA was the other major demand raised by the state. “With the existing allocation, providing even 40 job days was an arduous task. However, the increase in allocation in the Budget does not look good enough to streamline the functioning of MGNREGS,” the Chief Minister said. The demand to raise the borrowing limit, too, has been turned down. A price stability fund for rubber farmers has also been rejected.
“We had also asked for a timely disbursal of central assistance for centrally sponsored schemes, and also the central share of state-specific schemes. Usually, the money is transferred quite late causing severe project delays. The Budget was silent on these aspects also,” the Chief Minister said. He also raised concerns about the emphasis given to Aadhar in the Budget. “There is a fear that crores of people who do not possess an Aadhar card will be left out of the welfare network,” he said.
