Budget 2024 triggers heated debate in the parliament

Budget 2024 ignites parliamentary debate as Finance Minister Sitharaman defends allocations against opposition claims of state discrimination. Congress calls it fraudulent, while Trinamool raises concerns about West Bengal. Political tensions escalate over budget fairness and state development.

Amid serious criticism from the opposition parties, Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman presented Budget 2024 in Parliament. The issue of concern was the discrimination in budgetary process that was alleged by the opposition leaders arguing that some states were favored and others were sidelined.

During her passionate speech in the Rajya Sabha, Sitharaman refuted these claims and said that ‘every state cannot be named in the Budget speech. ‘ She even provided examples of major project announcements for states that were not mentioned in the speech, like the ₹76000 crore Vadhavan port project in Maharashtra.

The Finance Minister was critical of the opposition most especially the Congress party which he accused of trying to mislead the people. “This is an outrageous allegation,” Sitharaman said while daring Congress to produce an instance where they have mentioned all states in their budget speeches.

Members of the Trinamool Congress came back to the House to protest over non-payment of dues to West Bengal and the problem of flood in the Malda area of North Bengal where no relief was provided. While discussing the flood situation, MP Mausam Noor stressed the necessity of the flood protection measures for the population: “If these rivers join, there will be a large-scale tragedy, and everything will be destroyed”.

Congress President Mallikarjun Kharge labelled the budget as “fraud against the people of the country. ” He claimed while most states received nothing, Andhra Pradesh and Bihar were privileged with projects when their ruling parties joined the NDA coalition.

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This has raised political sentiments on Budget 2024 especially given the accusations by the opposition parties of partisan Budget allocation. While this debate continues, the effect of such allocations of the budget on different states and their development agendas remains an important point of discussion in Indian politics.