AIADMK general secretary Edappadi K. Palaniswami on Monday, February 19, 2024, dismissed the Tamil Nadu State Budget 2024 as a “mirage”, and said it would not benefit anyone.
Clarifying that he would issue a detailed statement later on the Budget, Mr Palaniswami told journalists that though the present DMK government had been getting higher revenues than the AIADMK regime had, the Budget did not have either new welfare schemes for people or any announcements regarding development projects.
The AIAMDK leader contended that the current regime had scrapped many welfare schemes of the previous regime such as the distribution of laptops and mangalasutras with gold for women. “Though they spend less than we did, they are still borrowing money,” Mr Palaniswami observed, referring to the projected outstanding debt of ₹8,33,361.80 crore at the end of the year 2024-25.
To study the debt condition of the State government, the DMK regime had set up a committee. “Now, you need to form a panel to find out the fate of the committee,” the AIADMK leader said. Recalling that the DMK manifesto for the Assembly election talked about building a certain number of check dams every year, Mr Palaniswami said this was not reflected in the Budget, which had been prepared in a “routine manner.”
As for the purchase of 3,000 buses and 500 electric buses, he pointed out that this was what was stated in the previous budgets too. “But all these announcements remain only on paper,” he said, adding that the current government had not come out with a White Paper on the details regarding the memoranda of understanding signed and industrial units opened since it came to power nearly three years ago.
To a question about financial support from the Centre during the AIADMK regime, he replied that the position then was as good as the present. “Yet, with the available financial resources, we managed to implement a number of welfare schemes and infrastructure development projects,” Mr Palaniswami added.
