Rajasthan BJP welcomes 'inclusive' budget Congress accuses Centre of ignoring state

    Jaipur, Jul 23 (PTI) The ruling BJP in Rajasthan on Tuesday welcomed the budget calling it progressive and inclusive, while the opposition Congress accused the Centre of ignoring the state.
    "This is a progressive budget and the vision of 2047 is reflected in it. Innovative experiments have been done for the youth like providing internships in big companies. This is a budget made with inclusiveness and foresight for infrastructure, agriculture, youth and women," senior BJP leader and former state president Satish Poonia said.
    Congress state unit chief Govind Singh Dotasra, however, said that the budget was a disappointment for Rajasthan.
    He also alleged that the Centre ignored Rajasthan in the Union Budget 2024-25 as a revenge for losing 11 Lok Sabha seats in the state.
    "The central government is working only to save itself. It is not working for all sections," Dotasra told reporters here.    
    "BJP lost 11 seats in Lok Sabha elections this year and, therefore, the central government has neglected Rajasthan in the budget," he said.
    Targeting Union Tourism Minister Gajendra Singh Shekhawat, an MP from Rajasthan's Jodhpur, Dotasra said that the minister failed to get any significant announcements for the tourism sector in the state.
    "When he was the Jal Shakti minister, he could not get the Eastern Rajasthan Canal Project (ERCP) the national project status. He even could not get a special package for drinking water in western Rajasthan despite being the Jal Shakti minister," the Congress leader told reporters.
    Senior Congress leader and former chief minister Ashok Gehlot seconded Dotasra, saying that Rajasthan has got only disappointment in the budget.
    "It seems as if the central government has handed over the entire country's budget to Andhra Pradesh and Bihar only for political reasons," he said.
    Gehlot said that Rajasthan needed a special package but the state's name did not even come up in the entire budget speech of Union Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman.
    "During the assembly elections (last year), no speech of the prime minister used to end without the misleading claim of double development from the so-called double engine government," he said.
    Gehlot, in a statement, said that the central government has played with the interests of Rajasthan by not making any announcement on the Eastern Rajasthan Canal Project (ERCP).
    Earlier, the BJP government had promised 2 crore jobs per year but now an announcement of giving 1 crore internships and Rs 5,000 per month in five years has been made in the budget, he said
    The former CM also said that no measures have been taken in this budget to control inflation.
    "Neither any tax has been reduced on petrol and diesel nor cooking gas has been made cheaper," he added.

(This story has not been edited by THE WEEK and is auto-generated from PTI)