Thiruvananthapuram: Kerala has been served nothing but neglect in the third budget of the third Modi government, presented by Nirmala Sitharaman, the latest in the pattern. The BJP-led Centre was not ready to grant any of Kerala's long-standing demands this time too. The Union Finance Minister announced only a mineral corridor and a turtle research center for Kerala, while the demand for AIIMS, which has been around for years, was also ignored this time.
When seven high-speed rail corridors were announced in the country, Kerala was not included in them either. It was expected that the announcement regarding the high-speed corridor proposed by E. Sreedharan would be in the budget, but that too was not in the budget. Vizhinjam port was also completely ignored. There was also hope that a special economic package of Rs 21,000 crore would be allocated to the state, but that wasn’t there either.
Due to the change in the US import policy, Kerala is facing a revenue loss of Rs 2500 crore annually in exports of seafood, spices, cashew nuts and textiles. As part of the GST rate revision, there is a reduction of Rs 8000 crore in annual revenue. All these were considered sufficient reasons to grant a special economic package to Kerala, but the Centre did not grant it.
Kerala put forward many demands to the central government, including raising the credit limit, restoring GST compensation, and increasing the wages of scheme workers including Anganwadi and ASHA, but all of them were completely rejected.