States ruled by opposition parties ignored in union budget; INDIA bloc stages massive protest in Parliament

NEW DELHI: The leaders of the INDIA bloc are staging a massive protest in front of the Parliament against the union budget presented by the central government yesterday. The opposition leaders are staging the protest alleging that states ruled by opposition parties were ignored in the budget. The leaders raised banners and placards against the central government and the union budget.

Opposition leader Rahul Gandhi, Congress leaders Sonia Gandhi, KC Venugopal, Samajwadi Party leader Akhilesh Yadav and many others participated in the protest. The opposition has decided to stage a walkout if the Centre does not provide an explanation when the issue is raised in the Parliament.

"The concept of the budget has already been destroyed by this year's Union Budget. They have completely discriminated against most of the states. So the INDIA alliance meeting was held on how to oppose it," KC Venugopal said.

"We had demanded support prices for farmers. But here we are seeing that the support price is given to the alliance partners who are saving their (BJP) government, rather than the farmers. Uttar Pradesh did not get anything. UP should have got a double benefit from Delhi and Lucknow from the double-engine government," Akhilesh Yadav said.

"Maharashtra is the highest tax-paying state, yet we didn't get our share in return," Shiv Sena (UBT) leader Priyanka Chaturvedi said.

"It is an underwhelming budget. I didn't hear anything about the key issues facing the common man. There is no mention of MNREGA, and insufficient mention of steps taken to improve the income of a common person," Congress leader Shashi Tharoor said.