Telangana facing financial constraints, says Revanth Reddy
Chief Minister A Revanth Reddy said Telangana faces financial constraints and asked government employees to strengthen tax collection. He highlighted the burden of retirement benefits and urged officials to ensure welfare schemes and ration cards reach eligible beneficiaries
Hyderabad: Chief Minister A Revanth Reddy said the State government was facing severe financial constraints and asked government employees to focus on improving tax collection.
Addressing a meeting of the Madiga Employees Coordination Committee on Friday, he said employees must ensure strict tax collection and act against evaders to strengthen the State’s finances.
“If taxes are collected efficiently and evasion is checked, the revenue can be used for the welfare of the poor,” he said. The Chief Minister said the government was also struggling to meet retirement benefit obligations. On average, around 1,000 employees retire every month.
He said the government has to pay nearly Rs 1 crore in retirement benefits to each employee, which amounts to about Rs 1,000 crore every month. Referring to land reforms, he said vast tracts of land were once owned by zamindars and jagirdars. Former Prime Minister P V Narasimha Rao later introduced the Agricultural Ceiling Act.
Around 25 lakh acres of assigned land were distributed to the poor through pattas. However, the pattas were later misused in several cases, and the government was working to address the issue. “The government does not have sufficient land to distribute to the poor. I have said this earlier at Osmania University and at other meetings,” he said, adding that the government’s financial flexibility was limited.
The Chief Minister said the Congress government had implemented several welfare measures after coming to power. These include the issuance of ration cards, supply of fine rice, sanction of Indiramma houses, free bus travel for women, 200 units of free electricity, crop loan waiver and the Rythu Bharosa scheme.
However, he said he was not certain whether all eligible beneficiaries had received the benefits. He urged government employees to work harder to ensure that every eligible poor family receives a ration card. He said ration cards were essential for availing benefits such as fine rice, Indiramma housing and free electricity. Members of the Madiga community were also waiting for ration cards, he added.
The Chief Minister asked employees to work actively during the ongoing 99-day programme, saying it could benefit the Madiga community both directly and indirectly. Referring to characters from the Mahabharata, he said Telangana was the only State implementing Scheduled Caste categorisation following Supreme Court directions.
“Many people admire Krishna or Arjuna, but I admire Karna, who stood by his friend. In the same way, I have stood by my Madiga friends,” he said. He also referred to Barbarikudu, the grandson of Bhima, who fought for the weak.
The Chief Minister said SC categorisation alone may not resolve all issues faced by the community. He cited concerns such as promotions, higher education opportunities, land issues and protection of LIDCAP lands. He assured that these issues could be addressed with the support of Madiga employees.