Hyderabad: Announcing that the State government would be releasing the guidelines for the implementation of crop loan waiver for the farmers in four days, chief minister A Revanth Reddy said that passbooks will be used for identification of beneficiaries, and not ration cards.
Addressing the media in New Delhi on Friday, Revanth said that the State budget would be introduced two days after the Union budget is tabled in the Parliament. He said that he has informed the officials to prepare budget estimates based on the factual situation and not like the “illusionary” budget estimates prepared during the BRS regime.
He said that his team of ministers have already met the union ministers once, to seek the funds that were yet to be released to the State, and that the Centre has been apprised of the needs of the State before the union budget, so that maximum funds could be secured for the State.
He said that the schemes which put the maximum burden on the State’s exchequer like the crop loan waiver would be implemented first, followed by Rythu Bharosa, crop insurance and other schemes. Opining that calling welfare schemes as “freebees” was not right, he said that the schemes should benefit the poor and not the wealthy.
“When Modi government waived-off Rs 16 lakh crore debts of corporate companies nobody questioned the Centre, but when we are implementing welfare schemes for the farmers, women and the poor, they are questioning us,” he wondered why.
Talking about Rs 7 lakh crore debt accumulated during the BRS government’s tenure, he said that the State government was still paying Rs 7,000 crore as payable interest every month for it. Noting that the BRS government had secured loans on 7 to 10 % rate of interest, he said that the State government has been negotiating with the Centre to reduce the interest rates.
He also said that once the BC Commission’s term ends in August and a new Commission is constituted, BC census will be taken up, and that a commission for new mandals and revenue divisions would be constituted soon.
Talking about the financial condition of TGSRTC, Revanth said that due to the free bus travel for women in the State being implemented, the occupancy in RTC buses has increased from 30 to 80 %. He said that the State government was paying the corporation Rs 350 crore every month, due to which the operational costs of the corporation have come down, putting the corporation on the path of profits.
When asked about the probable Congress leaders who could make their way into the cabinet expansion and the appointment of new TPCC president, Revanth said that the party high command was in the process of making those choices. He, however, said that only those who won on Congress B-form in the assembly elections would be made the ministers in the cabinet expansion. Noting that anybody could be in the race for TPCC president, Revanth said that social justice will be the served in the cabinet expansion.
When asked if the party could see a woman as the new TPCC president, he said that it would be a good development if that happens.
When questioned about Congress encouraging defections from other parties, Revanth pointed out that even in Karnataka, Maharashtra and Madhya Pradesh, BJP has done the same, and that Telangana was not the only state where defections have been happening. He gave the example of four Rajya Sabha MPs from TDP who defected to BJP in the previous NDA government.
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