Telangana Pradesh Congress Committee (TPCC) President N. Uttam Kumar Reddy has accused the TRS Government of pushing Telangana into a debt trap.
Speaking to media persons at Assembly Media Point after Finance Minister Eatala Rajender presented budget for 2017-18 on Monday, the TPCC Chief said that the TRS Government has created a sort of record by borrowing huge loans during the last two-and-a-half years. He said that Telangana inherited debts of nearly Rs. 69,000 crore at the time of its formation. Now those debts have crossed Rs. 1.40 lakh crore. While the State Government has borrowed about Rs. 70,000 crore, various corporations took loans of nearly Rs. 45,000 crore. Overall, he said that the Telangana State was in the debts of nearly Rs. 1.85 Lakh crore.
Uttam Kumar Reddy described today's budget as a jugglery of numbers. He said several key sectors like double bed room houses for poor, three acres of land for Dalit families and Fee Reimbursement were completely neglected in the budget. He said huge allocations were made for sectors like irrigation and Mission Bhagaritha where the TRS leaders could get commissions.
The TPCC chief said that the Finance Minister himself has admitted in his budget speech that as against the sanctioned 2.60 lakh houses, only 1426 houses have been completed as on 28th February this year. He condemned the government for not allocating any funds for 2BHK houses in this budget.
Similarly, he said nearly 3,000 Dalit families were given promised three acres of land during the last two-and-a-half years. As this rate, he said it would take 100 years for the government to provide promised land to all Dalit families. He said that the Agriculture sector has remained neglected in the budget. He also claimed that the agriculture production, especially food grains, has come down since TRS Government took over.
Uttam Kumar Reddy said that the budget of Rs. 1.49 Lakh crore was based on fictitious and manipulated figures and it was far from reality. He said that the TRS Government has become habitual of presenting impressive numbers in budget speeches and it revises the budget estimates at the time of presentation of next budget. Citing an instance, he said for the year 2016-17, the Finance Minister presented a budget of Rs. 1.30 Lakh Cr. But in today's budget speech he said it has been revised to Rs. 1.12 lakh crore.