D K Aruna Slams "Unreal" Telangana Budget

BJP national Vice President D K Aruna today belittled the 2021-22 Budget presented by Telangana Finance Minister T Harish Rao at the Budget session, saying that it was "unreal".

In her statement on the 2021-22 Budget, she said, "While the TRS government has already stated that it is facing financial hardships in the wake of the economic devastation caused by the Covid-19 pandemic, it has presented a budget worth over Rs 2.30 lakh crore to the Assembly. This is clearly an unreal proposition. It seems highly unlikely to materialise over the coming financial year."

The BJP leader then flayed the government for what she thought were misallocations, and claimed, "Where only Rs 16,900 crore has been allocated to the irrigation sector, it is well-known that the sector needs at least Rs 1 lakh crore to complete the on-going projects. The allocation makes the government's sincerity towards completing the Gattu LIS and the Palamuru Rangareddy LIS seem inadequate, as no funds were set aside for either project."

Expressing her doubts about the proposed expenditure on education, Aruna said, "In the past seven years, the TRS government has not once spent a single rupee on the development of the infrastructure in government schools. This year, while it has proposed to spend Rs 4,000 crore on the schools, it remains to be seen what will become of the funds. Further, has the government forgotten entirely the sports sector of the state? It is strange that no funds have been allocated to the sector yet again."

She also spoke about the government's welfare spending, and pointed out what she thought were glaring omissions.

"The government has failed to waive the loans of the handloom workers and to provide insurance to the families of the deceased workers. Also, the matter of the establishment of Handloom Parks remains unaddressed. Further, though it has allocated generous funds to the animal husbandry department, no funds were set aside for the distribution of sheep to the shepherd community. Of course, livestock distribution is something that is done only during the elections years. Also, the TRS government has once again sanctioned a huge sum of Rs 11,000 crore for its 2BHK scheme. Although about Rs 10,000 crore was given to the project in the 2020-21 Budget, the construction of the housing units remains incomplete. It is doubtful whether the units will be completed this year either," the BJP leader charged.

"If the TRS regime is as committed to welfare as it claims, why didn't it allocate funds to the state's self-help groups? An allocation of Rs 3,000 crore would have been enough to clear their dues which have piled up over the last three years. And, though nothing came of the Rs 6,225 crore pumped into the farm loan waivers in the previous state budget, the government has allocated Rs 5,225 crore for the waivers again. Hopefully, this year, the funds will be productively used," she added.

Ridiculing the announcement of the funds for the panchayat raj and rural development department, the BJP bigwig said that most of the development in the gram panchayats had been achieved through the funds sanctioned by the Centre. She also attacked the government for its "inadequate" allocations for the welfare of the SC and ST communities.

Further, Aruna claimed that going by the allocations to the health department, the TRS' promise to develop Telangana's primary health centres into district hospitals and district hospitals into super-speciality hospitals would not be fulfilled.

But what she criticised most vehemently was the ruling party's decision to allocate Rs 610 crore for the construction of the controversial new Secretariat. She assailed the government for the hefty allocation saying, "The TRS government has given undue importance to the construction of the new Secretariat building to serve the personal interests of Chief Minister K Chandrashekar Rao. He wants to take credit for the new building. To do this, he made the state bear the unnecessary expense of demolishing a perfectly adequate building. Anyway, the whole pursuit is rather absurd since our CM barely visits the Secretariat."