Chennai: Tamil Nadu Chief Minister, MK Stalin, has boycotted the NITI Aayog meeting being held in New Delhi on Saturday.
CM Stalin, in an emotional video statement on Saturday said that the Union government was victimising people of states that did not vote for the BJP and NDA in the Lok Sabha elections by neglecting them in the Union Budget.
He said that Tamil Nadu was a classic example of this step-motherly treatment by the Union government in the recent budget.
The TN CM in a hard-hitting speech said that Union Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman did not utter a single word on Tamil Nadu during the entire speech.
CM Stalin said that generally even the BJP government used to make salutations to saint Tiruvallur and Tirukkural during the budget speech but it was not done this time.
He added that it was good that in a budget which disregarded Tamil Nadu there was no mention of Tiruvallur and Tirukkural that are the pride of the state.
CM Stalin said that his government was following the policy of equality for all in the state budget, including those who did not vote and those who did vote for the ruling party.
He said that the central government was only for those who had voted for the BJP and the NDA.
CM Stalin said that Tamil Nadu had suffered immensely last year due to two back-to-back cyclones leading to heavy rains and floods and other natural calamities that resulted in major destruction and loss of lives.
He added that Tamil Nadu was expecting a compensation of at least Rs 35,000 crore, but the Union government allocated a meager Rs 276 core in the budget and that too from the NDRF funds sanctioned for the state.
CM Stalin said that Union Home Minister Amit Shah had hurriedly laid the foundation stone for the second phase of Chennai Metro but added that not a single rupee was earmarked for this project in the present Union budget also.
He said that there was not even a mention of Coimbatore and Madurai metro rails in this year’s budget.
CM Stalin said that a couple of days before the Union budget was presented he had put the requirements of the state on his social media for the Centre to consider, but the state had to face disappointment.
He said that Tamil Nadu had implemented several social welfare schemes that were models for the entire nation and added that this was the merit of the Dravidian model of governance that had people and their welfare as priorities.
The CM also said that the Centre did not allocate any funds for the education sector of Tamil Nadu as it had not joined the NEP.
CM Stalin said that the BJP government was only keen on implementing its ideology and imposing Hindi and was not bothered about the people of Tamil Nadu and their well-being, hence the state was boycotting the NITI Aayog meeting in New Delhi.
–IANS