Budget Has Left All Sections Of People Deeply Disappointed: BRS

Former finance minister and BRS MLA T Harish Rao today said that the vote-on-account budget of the State government for 2024-25 presented in the Assembly today had left all sections of the people deeply disappointed.

He alleged that the budget allocations made to Rythu Bandhu and the loan waiver scheme clearly indicated that those schemes would be withdrawn soon.

"Out of the Rs 19,746 crore agriculture budget, salaries are Rs 3,000 crore. The rest of the money includes crop insurance, loan waiver and the Rythu Bandhu schemes. In reality, Rs 22,000 crore are required for Rythu Bharosa promises of the Congress alone, and the farm loan waiver needs Rs 40,000 crore. There is also no announcement of any time frame for the loan waiver. A total of Rs 82,000 crore is required for everything the Congress promised including insurance for farmers. You have however put in only Rs 15,000 crore. We have done farmer insurance for everyone. You said that you would do it for the tenant farmers too but did nothing. The budget has been a huge disappointment for the farmers," he said.

He alleged that the Congress party had cheated the farmers on power supply, too. He said that the assertion that farmers were eing given 24-hour power supply was a lie. "We're ready to go anywhere and see it. Will the CM come or the ministers come?" he asked.

He added that farmers were committed suicides due to power cuts in the State. "While KCR worked tirelessly to make the farmer the king, the Congress government stopped the farmers' journey in just two months," he said.

He also said that the State government was not able give even the previous Rs 2,000 pension to Asara scheme beneficiaries, leave alone implement its promise of enhancing it to Rs 4,000.

The ex-finance minister also added that the CM had also broken his promise of making a law on the implementation of six guarantees. He also alleged that the so-called public administration (Praja Palana) program was a sham, and that the CM had attended the program for just one day and it was now run by the outsourcing employees of the State government. He said that according to the Congress' manifesto the CM should be organising a praja darbar every day.