Thiruvananthapuram, Jun 19: BJP MLAs on Friday criticised the UDF government’s maiden Budget, alleging that it was built on ambitious promises without a clear roadmap for implementation and resource mobilisation.
In a social media post, BJP state president Rajeev Chandrasekhar said the Budget was rich in announcements but lacked clarity on how the government planned to finance the various projects and welfare schemes proposed in it.
He alleged that Kerala was already burdened with a debt of Rs 5.07 lakh crore and questioned how the state would raise funds for the new initiatives.
Chandrasekhar claimed that three of the five ‘Indira Guarantee’ promises made by Congress leader Rahul Gandhi during the Assembly election campaign had not been meaningfully reflected in the Budget.
Referring to the promise of providing health insurance coverage of Rs 25 lakh to every family, he alleged that only Rs 10 crore had been earmarked for the scheme.
“With around 90 lakh families in Kerala, this works out to about Rs 11 per family. The Congress government has deceived the people,” he alleged.
The BJP leader claimed that the government’s promise to increase welfare pensions to Rs 3,000 per month had not been fulfilled.
He alleged that the proposed loan scheme of up to Rs 5 lakh for youth had remained only a promise.
According to Chandrasekhar, making promises that are never implemented has become a hallmark of Congress politics.
The Nemom MLA also criticised what he described as attempts to promote large-scale privatisation of public sector institutions and state assets through the Budget.
“People of Kerala need fiscal discipline, corruption-free governance and genuine development, not political fantasies,” he said.
Chandrasekhar attacked both the Congress and the CPI(M), alleging that the previous LDF government had weakened the state’s economy and that the two fronts now represented similar approaches to governance.
He argued that Kerala needed the BJP-led NDA’s vision of a ‘Viksita (developed) Keralam’ and said his party would closely monitor the implementation of each Budget announcement.
BJP MLA B B Gopakumar, at a press conference, said that despite a change in government, there was little difference between the two major political fronts in their policy orientation and economic outlook.
“Only the people occupying the seats have changed. There is no substantial change in the policies or economic approach of the two fronts,” he said.
Gopakumar claimed that decades of governance by the UDF and the LDF had left Kerala grappling with serious financial challenges and lacking a clear developmental direction.
Referring to the state’s finances, he said the government had not provided sufficient clarity regarding public debt and liabilities despite acknowledging the difficult fiscal situation in its policy document.
The BJP leader raised concerns about the role of the Kerala Infrastructure Investment Fund Board (KIIFB), arguing that a body outside the constitutional framework continued to play a major role in managing the state’s finances.
He questioned the legal and financial implications of such an arrangement and said the Budget had failed to adequately address Kerala’s long-term fiscal concerns.
According to Gopakumar, the document did not offer convincing solutions to the state’s economic challenges and left several key questions regarding financial management unanswered.
BJP MLA V Muraleedharan also questioned the government’s claim that the Budget would lay the foundation for a ‘New Kerala’, alleging that the proposals outlined in the document lacked a credible implementation framework.
“The CM has described this as a Budget for creating a New Kerala. However, after listening to the entire speech, it appears that the New Kerala exists only in the Budget paper. The proposals announced are unlikely to create such a transformation on the ground,” he told reporters. (PTI)
