Union Budget: Not discrimination, it is vengeance against Telangana, says Revanth

Condemning the Centre's vindictive attitude towards Telangana, the Chief Minister said though Sitharaman allocated funds to Andhra Pradesh under the AP Reorganization Act, the name of Telangana was nowhere in her speech.

Hyderabad: Stating that the union budget presented on Tuesday smacked of not just discrimination towards Telangana but also vengeance against the people of the State, Chief Minister A Revanth Reddy asked union Finance Minister Nirmala Sitaraman to correct the budget and make allocations to the State. On Wednesday, after the question hour in the State Assembly, there will be a short discussion on the discrimination towards Telangana, he said, adding that a resolution would also be passed.

Addressing a press conference here, Revanth Reddy said the eight Congress MPs from the State would protest against the union government’s attitude towards Telangana in the Parliament, and asked AIMIM MP Asaduddin Owaisi and the eight BJP MPs from the State as well to join the protest.

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Condemning the Centre’s vindictive attitude towards Telangana, the Chief Minister said though Sitharaman allocated funds to Andhra Pradesh under the AP Reorganization Act, the name of Telangana was nowhere in her speech.

“We are not against the allocations made to Andhra Pradesh. But when funds are granted to Andhra Pradesh as per the AP Reorganisation Act, why discriminate against Telangana? The Act implies to both Telangana and AP,” he said, asking why the Centre did not allot funds to Telangana for Metro expansion, Musi riverfront project or the Palamuru Rangareddy Lift Irrigation scheme. This discrimination was the main reason for the Telangana agitation, and if the Centre continued the same, the people would be compelled to launch a similar agitation, he said.

Pointing out that he had flown to New Delhi 18 times to meet Prime Minister Narendra Modi, union Home Minister Amit Shah and other union Ministers, the Chief Minister said he had personally met the Prime Minister three times. An appeal was made to the Prime Minister to support Telangana as a big brother, but he was acting in a wicked manner, he said, adding that the ‘Sab Ka Saath Sab Ka Vikas’ campaign had turned into a bogus slogan. This was not a Viksit Bharat budget but a ‘Kursi Bachao Budget’.

Stating that the State government had its own plans to take up the proposed development and welfare programmes and did not have to depend on the mercy of others, he said the BJP was considering Southern States as voting machines. A meeting would be proposed with the Chief Ministers of Tamil Nadu, Karnataka, Kerala, Andhra Pradesh and others to discuss issues pertaining to budget allocations, impact of delimitation of MP seats and permissions for projects. Revanth Reddy, demanding that union Minister G Kishan Reddy resign from the union Cabinet in protest against the Centre’s indifference towards Telangana, asked why Kishan Reddy and Bandi Sanjay were continuing in the Cabinet even after the Centre had rejected the State’s demand for an IIM.