Centre halting Telangana’s growth: AIMIM

Taking part in the Budget discussion in the Legislative Assembly on Wednesday, AIMIM MLA Akbaruddin said Telangana had developed at a rapid pace in all sectors in the last eight years.

Hyderabad: Accusing the BJP-led union government of acting with vengeance against Telangana and cutting down its due share in Central funds, Leader of Opposition Akbaruddin Owaisi said due to lack of financial assistance from the Centre and the hurdles created by it in various forms, Telangana could not achieve the growth it should have in the last eight years.

Taking part in the Budget discussion in the Legislative Assembly on Wednesday, Akbaruddin said Telangana had developed at a rapid pace in all sectors in the last eight years. However, if the Centre had helped liberally in terms of financial assistance for various projects, the State would have achieved much greater heights. The Centre was stopping Telangana’s development by imposing various restrictions, he alleged.

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“Even while Telangana has been achieving significant development through its own efforts, the Centre has been creating hurdle after hurdle,” he said. As per the recommendations of the 15th Finance Commission, the share of Telangana’s Central devolution of taxes has dropped from the previous 2.37 per cent to 2.1 per cent causing a huge loss to the State, the AIMIM member said, pointing out that Telangana was getting much less than AP too.

During 2021-22, Telangana received a Central devolution of Rs 7,496 crore while Andhra Pradesh received Rs 33,376 crore. In 2022-23, Telangana received Rs 19,668 crore while AP got Rs 38,177 crore and during 2023-24, it was projected that Telangana would be receiving Rs 21,471 crore, whereas AP would get Rs 41,338 crore, he said.

Coming down heavily on the Centre, Akbaruddin said the Centre, which has taken a loan of over Rs 100 lakh crore from various financial agencies, was criticising Telangana for taking loans for various development works. “Centre is borrowing Rs 4,895.38 crore every day and paying an interest of Rs 2,958.82 crore per day. What’s wrong if the Telangana government takes loans for development?” he asked.

Speaking about minority welfare schemes, the AIMIM leader urged the government to release the amount sanctioned under the Shaadi Mubarak scheme. He said about 35,494 applications of the Shaadi Mubarak scheme were pending and if the government releases Rs 150 crore, these would be cleared. He said since the Centre had scrapped the pre-metric scholarship for minority students, the State should introduce a similar scheme.