Congress Slams "Dagakoru" Telangana 2018-19 Budget

Leader Of Opposition in the Telangana Legislative Council Mohammed Ali Shabbir today described the Telangana budget for 2018 as the fourth "dagakoru" (cheating) budget of the TRS government since the formation of Telangana.

Addressing a press conference at Gandhi Bhavan, he said that the TRS' budgets were just attempts at fooling the public as the TRS government had never spent the amount declared in the budget.

Last year though it had announced a budget of Rs. 1,49,646 crores, the government had spent only Rs. 1,08,000 crores, and rest of the funds were allowed to lapse, he said.

In the same way, during the current year, too, of the budget of Rs. 1,74,453 crores, it was likely that more than 40% would be unspent.

Even where the money was actually spent, the government sanctioned works and released funds only where it got high kickbacks or commissions, he charged.

He claimed that CM K Chandrashekar Rao was a blatant liar who never spent the money allocated in the budget for the people's welfare but only on his pet projects, and diverted funds from one department to another as per his whims and fancies as no official could oppose him.

"He has thrown out all the Congress MLAs and MLCs so that they would not question his vagabond culture and policies in the budget," Shabbir Ali alleged.

Also, under KCR's governance, the government borrowed heavily from banks etc, and the people had to pay heavy taxes and power/water tariffs to help it clear the huge public debts.

He said that some statistics provided in budget papers themselves showcased the sordid state of affairs in Telangana under the TRS regime. For example, as against a sanction for 2,72,563 double bedroom houses and of Rs. 2,643 crores in last four years, only 9,552 houses had been built so far, he said. Then, only 4,939 of the 34 lakh eligible dalits had been given the promised free three acres of land. And though 1.10 lakh vacancies were notified, so far only 27,588 persons had been recruited.

The Congress rejected the budget and would explain to the people the government's inaction towards the weaker sections, and would seek the latter's support to teach a lesson to the TRS in the coming elections, Shabbir Ali said.