New Delhi [India], February 12 : Union Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman on Wednesday rejected criticism from some MPs from Kerala that the poll-bound state did not get anything in the Union Budget and slammed the Left parties, saying "whenever Communists are in power, the financial condition of that state deteriorates".
Replying to the debate on Union Budget in Lok Sabha, she slammed the CPI-M led government in Kerala over law and order situation.
"Communists also talked about the budget. They said Kerala doesn't get anything. The fact is that wherever Communists are in power, the financial condition of that state deteriorates and no investment takes place there. Gross Fixed Capital Formation declined from 2.06% of GSDP (1980s) to 1.09% post-2002.Three hundred and ninety-nine cooperative banks/societies committed financial fraud over six year. One hundred and twenty-five political murders took place between 2006-2021 in Kerala," she said.
"The highest number of crimes against Scheduled Castes occur in Kerala - there are 661 crimes per lakh population in Kerala. As per NCRB data, highest crime rate for atrocities against Scheduled Tribes: 35.5 per lakh population. Atrocities against STs rose by 6.2%; against SCs rose by 1.2%. This is a Kerala Assembly disclosure in March 2023," she added.
Finance Minister said that coconut is the lifeblood of Kerala and the BJP-led government at the Centre is making efforts to promote it.
She said the Coconut Promotion Scheme is aimed at increasing production and improving productivity by replacing non-productive trees with high-yielding saplings in major coconut-growing states.
"Through the coconut promotion scheme, the Indian government aims to make sure that coconut supply across the nation remains good," she said.
The Centre, she said, will partner with states to promote focused cultivation and post-harvest processing to restore the Indian sandalwood ecosystem.
Sitharaman also slammed the West Bengal government over criticism of its MPs concerning GST.
"The state government in West Bengal imposes road levies and charges taxes at the time of new vehicle registration. If there is so much concern about GST burdening citizens, then why impose additional state-level taxes? These could be waived for the people of Bengal, but instead, GST collections are criticized while state taxes continue to be levied," she said.