Telangana Budget Full Of Inflated Figures: Congress

The Leader Of Opposition in the Telangana Legislative Council Mohammed Ali Shabbir said that the State's budget for 2016-17, presented by Finance Minister Etela Rajender in the Assembly and Deputy CM Kadiam Srihari in the Council, was a compilation of inflated and unrealistic figures.

Speaking to media persons along with MLCs Ponguleti Sudhakar Reddy, Farooq Hussain, Akula Lalitha and Damodar Reddy at the Assembly media point on Monday, Shabbir Ali said that the budget of Rs. 1.30 lakh crores was completely unrealistic. However, he said that it would not have mattered even if TRS government had presented a budget of Rs. two lakh crores.

"Last year the government presented a budget of Rs. 1.15 lakh crores. But the government did not spend even 50% of the allocated amounts. Even the budget for 2014-15 was mostly unutilized. Therefore, it can be presumed that the Rs. 1.30 lakh crore budget will remain on paper," he said.

Shabbir Ali strongly criticised the Finance Minister for not allocating any funds for the 2 BHK housing scheme. Similarly, another flagship scheme, Mission Bhagiratha, had gotten no funds in this Budget. The schemes have both been linked with loans and borrowings from Central agencies and other institutions.

"The TRS government is simply trying to shift the burden and blame to other agencies. If the government was serious, it would have allocated sufficient funds for the 2 BHK and Mission Bhagaritha projects," he said.

Shabbir Ali said that only Rs. 50 crores were increased in the budget for minorities' welfare to take it to Rs. 1,204 crores. However, this figure too was not relevant as the State government did not utilise even 50% of the funds allocated in the budgets during 2014-15 and 2015-16. In fact, there was not a single head which reported 100% utilization in 2015-16, he claimed. He said that the budget figures were good for reading and listening, but were far from reality.

Ponguleti Sudhakar Reddy said that the budget contained the hidden agenda of KCR. He said that the Chief Minister had kept a Special Development Fund of Rs. 4,675 crores under his control. "This fund is meant to entertain TRS MLAs and other legislators who are defecting from other parties to the TRS," he quipped.

He also criticised the Finance Minister for praising Panchayat Raj Minister K Taraka Rama Rao in the budget speech. He said that never in the past had any politician been named in the budget speech. He also slammed the government for skipping the issues of drought assistance, farmers' suicides and fee reimbursement.