Centre hasn’t given additional funds to Telangana, asserts KCR

Hyderabad: Chief Minister K Chandrashekhar Rao on Friday nailed the opposition lies on Central funds to Telangana State, peppering his arguments with facts and figures that laid bare the truth – the Centre did not go beyond its Constitutional obligation of releasing what was rightfully the State’s share in tax devolutions. The Centre has not […]

Hyderabad: Chief Minister K Chandrashekhar Rao on Friday nailed the opposition lies on Central funds to Telangana State, peppering his arguments with facts and figures that laid bare the truth – the Centre did not go beyond its Constitutional obligation of releasing what was rightfully the State’s share in tax devolutions. The Centre has not given any additional funds that a young and dynamic State like Telangana deserves, he said categorically.

Packing a punch against the BJP government at the Centre, Chandrashekhar Rao said: “As a responsible Chief Minister, I am making a statement on the floor of the Assembly that we have not received any fund which was not rightfully ours. The BJP leaders should refrain from repeating this senseless argument of Central funding to the State. They may be doing it to gain some political mileage but they don’t realise that this will only cause more damage to them,” he said, addressing the State Legislative Assembly during a short discussion on ‘Welfare Programmes.’

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Setting records straight, the Chief Minister pointed out that the Union government had only released a meagre Rs 42,000 crore since State formation in 2014 under the Centrally Sponsored Schemes, as against Rs 2.75 lakh crore contributed by the State to the Centre during the period. “The Reserve Bank of India ranked Telangana among the top four best contributing States in the country,” he said, and ridiculed allegations of diverting Central funds when there was none.

Chandrashekhar Rao, pointing out that Telangana’s per capita income of Rs 2,37,632 lakh was double the national per capita income of Rs 1,28,829, said there were many other ways for a political party to grow. “The BJP’s repeated attempts to spread false propaganda is suicidal,” he said, and dismissed the argument that the State government’s borrowings had increased significantly. All the bank accounts are maintained by the RBI to maintain physical prudence and all these statistics are available in public domain. The Union government’s loans have increased from Rs 53,000 crore in 2014 to Rs 1.35 lakh crore till date,” he pointed out.

“There is a disturbing trend that whenever the Centre or a State government does good work, some people start making cheap statements and ask ridiculous questions like if the money spent came from your pocket. Which ruler pays from his pocket for development and welfare anywhere in the world? Making optimum use of tax paid by citizens for welfare and development works with short-term, mid-term and long-term vision, reflects a government’s wisdom and priorities. People appreciate and support such governments,” he said.

Congress lacks management skills

Training his guns on the Congress, Chandrashekhar Rao said the party leaders lacked management skills which was available in abundance in the TRS government facilitating supply of drinking water, uninterrupted power and other welfare measures to the people of the State. “Though the Congress leaders want to take all the credit for development of Telangana, the fact is that they did nothing for Telangana during their decades long rule despite the Statehood movement. We recently sanctioned funds for a new project to supply water from Sunkesala and Nagarjuna Sagar projects. A new reservoir has also been sanctioned in Shamirpet which will be linked with Mallanna Sagar,” he said, adding that the argument was not about what the Congress did in the six decades of its rule but was about how the party could not implement anything effectively.

YSR regime, an injustice to Telangana

Chandrashekhar Rao said though the then Chief Minister late YS Rajashekhar Reddy had taken up some welfare schemes in Telangana, the minorities in the region suffered more than they gained. He pointed out that land belonging to Hazrat Hussain Shahvali Dargah was given to Lanco Hills during the YSR regime, and lands belonging to Abdul Biyabani ki Dargah at Chevella and another 70 acres of Guttala Begumpet were readied for sale, but the TRS stopped it during Statehood movement.

Slams centre over irrigation projects

Chief Minister K Chandrashekhar Rao slammed the Centre for its moves to take over the management of irrigation projects in Telangana State and Andhra Pradesh. He, however, expressed the hope that the gazette notification issued by the Centre to take control of the irrigation project will be kept in abeyance. “I took up Telangana’s concerns with Prime Minister Narendra modi, Union Home Minister Amit Shah and Union Jal Shakti Minister Gajendra Singh Shekhawat during my recent meetings with them, and they have responded positively, assuring that the implementation would be postponed from the scheduled date of October 16. If the Union government fails to postpone, I will lead an all party delegation to meet the Prime Minister and the Union Jal Shakti Minister to take up the State’s objections and concerns,” he said.

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