Chandigarh, Feb. 3 -- Finance minister Harpal Singh Cheema on Monday called out the BJP-led central government for completely ignoring Punjab's needs in the budget. Cheem said that there is no mention of the state anywhere in the budget speech and no reference to the long-pending rural development fund (RDF) of Rs.8,500 crore. Addressing a press conference here, Cheema claimed that Punjab has once again been left to manage on its own despite bearing the burden of national food security, facing the impact of repeated natural calamities, and responsibly handling RDF-related obligations, while receiving no meaningful support from the Centre for the 12th consecutive year. "The budget represents a deliberate attempt to derail the growth of the state, which has made sacrifices for the nation," he alleged. Taking strong objection to the approach of the 16th finance commission, Cheema said the Centre has turned a blind eye towards the states, ignoring their poor financial condition. "The vertical devolution, which is the total share of all states in the tax pool, has been kept unchanged at 41%. There is no increase at all despite the fiscal stress faced by states. The 16th finance commission has not recommended any revenue deficit grants, whereas the 15th finance commission had done so," he added. Cheema added that conditions imposed on the state disaster response fund (SDRF) are overly restrictive and severely affects states, including Punjab in effectively mitigating and managing disasters. "There is neither any increase in the agriculture infrastructure fund nor any concrete assistance to strengthen mandi infrastructure. There is absolutely nothing for farmers of Punjab in terms of increased allocation to the Agriculture Infrastructure Fund or for strengthening mandi infrastructure in the Union budget. States will now be forced to do all this from their own funds. The budget talks about high-value crops but has completely left out Punjab," he said. Criticising the reduction in subsidies and the absence of relief for common citizens, he said that urea subsidy has been reduced from Rs.1,26,475 crore last year to Rs.1,16,805 crore this year....