Telangana Congress Calls Budget A Magic Of Figures

Telangana Pradesh Congress Committee (TPCC) chief N Uttam Kumar Reddy today alleged that the state's proposed budget for 2017-18 was just a magic of figures.

Participating in the debate on the Appropriation Bill introduced by the Finance Minister Etela Rajender on Monday, Reddy said that the state's debts were Rs 69,000 crores, and expressed his concern over the increase. He also alleged that the debt taken in the last four years was more than that taken in the previous 60 years, and warned the government that that was not good for the state.

Reddy claimed that the state government had also artifically enhanced the GSDP growth rate, and expressed his doubts on the 10% growth rate touted. The state government was also planning to increase the debt limit by showing a false enhancement in the growth rate, he alleged.

The TPCC chief also said that the state government had shown an additional unsubstantiated revenue of Rs 20,000 crores, and that the interest burden had been increasing due to the phase-wise loan waiver. Also, the government had been saying that it would bear the increasing interest burden, but had not been releasing the same to the banks, he said, resulting in hardships to the farmers.

Reddy said that the crop produce had gone down severely in the last three years, and revealed that the Swaminathan Commission had recommended that the minimum support price be increased. But the state government had not even distributed the input subsidy sanctioned by the Centre to the farmers, he said.

He asked the state government why it had failed to give a bonus along with the minimum support price given by the central government. He informed the House that the Karnataka government had been giving bonuses for all crops. He said that the farmers' condition in Telangana was very bad, with the mirchi farmers experiencing losses owing to the price going down. He demanded that the state government give Rs 1,000 as bonus to the paddy farmers.