Congress six guarantees missing from Telangana Budget: Harish Rao

Hyderabad: Criticising the Congress government for “not showing” its commitment to fulfilling its ‘six guarantees’ of social welfare schemes, Siddipet MLA and ex-finance minister T Harish Rao said that what was promised before last year’s Assembly elections by the grand old party was not supported by the Budget estimates.

He felt that the Telangana Budget presented on Thursday lacked any “clear direction” for development and was going to push the State into a backward spiral. Addressing the media on Thursday, he questioned where the funds were for implementing Congress’ six guarantees within 100 days. “The State government’s budget is marked by self-praise and misplaced blame, failing to meet the people’s expectations by not allocating funds for promised schemes,” he said.

Harish Rao also said that there was no mention of allocations for filling two lakh government job vacancies in the Budget. He added that similar omissions were seen in the Budget regarding the promised Rs 2,500 income for women under Mahalakshmi scheme, increasing pensions to Rs 4,000, new ration cards, Rs 4,000 honorarium for the unemployed, and Rs 12,000 for auto workers.

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“The present government which criticised us for securing debt, now claims it will raise Rs 57,000 crore in debt, which is Rs 17,000 crore more than we did. In the last budget, I showed estimated revenue from excise as Rs 18,470 crore, but Bhatti has proposed Rs 25,617 crore, which is Rs 7,000 crore more. Are they planning to open a wine shop on every street? They claim to generate Rs 15,000 crore more from excise and VAT combined. Are they going to turn Telangana into a state of drunkards,” he wondered.

Pointing out that there was no difference in the proposed allocation for pensions as compared to last year’s estimates, Harish Rao said that it was now clear that there would be no increase in pensions in Telangana. “They promised to waive-off farm loans by August 15 and allocate Rs 31,000 crore. However, only Rs 15,470 crore has been allocated. How can they waive off loans with this amount,” he questioned.

He also said that while Congress government in Telangana had promised to allocate Rs 20,000 crore annually for the welfare of BCs, it has only proposed only Rs 9,000 crore in this year’s budget.

“Funds for irrigation have been reduced. Last year, we allocated Rs 26,825 crore, but now only Rs 22,300 crore has been proposed. They promised to increase Dalit Bandhu from Rs 10 lakh to Rs 12 lakh per beneficiary, but this was not reflected in the budget. There is also no mention of Girijan Bandhu,” Harish Rao underlined.

Observing that Telangana deputy chief minister Bhatti Vikramarka has proposed Rs 18,228 crore as revenues from stamp duty, which was Rs 4,000 crore more than what was proposed for the same last year, Harish Rao said that it implied an increase in land values and registration fees without any clear explanation.

“The chief minister and Bhatti have been claiming that they were paying Rs 7,000 crore per month as interest for debt secured during BRS regime. However, next year’s interest payable has been shown as Rs 17,729 crore. What is the truth,” he asked. Harish Rao ended his censure of the government by stating that Budget “shattered” people’s hopes.

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