Hyderabad: Leader of Opposition in Telangana Legislative Council Mohammed Ali Shabbir said that the State’s budget for 2016-17, presented by Finance Minister Eatala Rajender in Assembly and Deputy CM Kadiyam Srihari in Council, was a compilation of inflated and unrealistic figures.
Speaking to media persons along with MLCs Ponguleti Sudhakar Reddy, Farooq Hussain, Akula Lalitha and Damodar Reddy at Assembly media point on Monday, Shabbir Ali said that the budget of Rs. 1.30 lakh Crore was completely unrealistic. However, he said it does not matter even if TRS Government would have presented a budget of Rs. two lakh Crore. “Last year it presented a budget of Rs. 1.15 lakh crore. But the government did not spend even 50 per cent of the allocated amounts. Similarly, most of the allocations made in 2014-15 remained unutilized. Therefore, it can be presumed that Rs. 1.30 lakh crore budget would remain on paper,” he said.
Shabbir Ali strongly criticised the Finance Minister for not allocating any funds for 2 BHK housing scheme. Similarly, he said another flagship scheme, Mission Bhagiratha, got no funds in this budget. This scheme too has been linked with loans and borrowings from Central agencies and other institutions. TRS Government is simply trying to shift the burden and blame on other agencies. If the government was serious, it should have allocated sufficient funds for 2BHK and Mission Bhagaritha, he said.
Shabbir Ali said only Rs. 50 crore were increased in the budget for Minorities Welfare to take it to Rs. 1204 crore. However, this figure too is not relevant as the State Government did not utilise even 50% of funds allocated in the budgets during 2014-15 and 2015-16. Similarly, he said there was not a single head which reported 100% utilization in 2015-16. He said that the budget figures were good reading and listening, but they are far from reality.
Ponguleti
Ponguleti Sudhakar Reddy said that the budget had a hidden agenda of Chief Minister K. Chandrashekar Rao. He said that the Chief Minister had kept a Special Development Fund of Rs. 4,675 Crore under his control. “This fund is meant to entertain TRS MLAs and other legislators who were defecting from other parties to TRS,” he said. He also criticised the Finance Minister for praising Panchayat Raj Minister K. Tarakarama Rao in the budget speech. He said never in the past, any politician was named in the budget speech. He slammed the government for skipping the issue of drought assistance, farmers’ suicides and fee reimbursement. (NSS)
Budget is full of inflated figures: Shabbir Ali
