Tamil Nadu Chief Minister MK Stalin will boycott the NITI Aayog meeting convened by Prime Minister Narendra Modi on July 27 to protest against the Centre’s neglect in the Union Budget 2024-25 presented on Tuesday.
Union Budget was the biggest betrayal of Tami Nadu, he said in a statement. This year’s budget does not appear to be a budget for the entire country. Rather, it is like a coalition pact with the rulers of Bihar and Andhra Pradesh for political reasons, he said.
Though the Government of Tamil Nadu has consistently urged the Centre to provide calamity relief to recoup the two recent disasters, this Union Budget did not provide adequate funds.
While the Tamil Nadu government has submitted a detailed report for providing ₹37,000 crore as disaster relief, the Centre has released only about ₹276 crore, so far. But today, apart from Uttarakhand, Sikkim, Himachal Pradesh and Assam, Bihar alone will get ₹11,500 crore for disaster mitigation. This is a great injustice to the people of Tamil Nadu, said Chief Minister Stalin.
Though the second phase of the Chennai Metro Rail Project was announced by the Centre more than three years ago, no funds have been released for this. There was no announcement about metro rail projects for Coimbatore and Madurai cities in this budget, he said.