Hyderabad: Telugu Desam Legislature Party leader A. Revanth Reddy has strongly objected to allocation of Rs. 4,675 crore towards Special Development Fund which would be under the control of Chief Minister K. Chandrashekar Rao.
Participating in the debate on State Budget for 2016-17 in Legislative Assembly on Friday, Revanth demanded that the fund be utilised to clear off dues of crop loan waiver schemes. Since the government has already allocated funds for third installment, another amount of Rs. 4,250 crore from the Fund should be utilised to pay the fourth installment of crop loan waiver scheme. He said there was no need for the Chief Minister to keep such a huge fund under his control.
Revanth Reddy said that the Telangana has been experiencing severe drought since the last two years. Instead of extending full-fledged assistance to farmers, the State Government has divided the crop loan amount into four installments while keeping the poor farmers trapped in debt burden for four years. He said that the Chief Minister should keep a maximum of Rs. 500 crore under Special Development Fund.
The TDP leader said previous 16 Chief Ministers took loans of nearly Rs. 69,000 crore in a period of 63 years for the erstwhile united Andhra Pradesh. However, KCR has increased the State’s debts by Rs. 1.50 lakh Crore in less than two years. (INN)