Hyderabad: The Leader of the Opposition (LoP) and Bharat Rashtra Samithi (BRS) chief K Chandrashekhar Rao (KCR) remarked that the Telangana Budget for 2024-25 “neither has something new nor concrete,” and has “poured water on the aspirations of Telangana’s people.”
“Our idea was to give the government six months of time (before criticising it). I have also not attended the Assembly. But if you look at the Budget today, not even a single policy formulation has taken place,’ he said, speaking to reporters at the media point in the Telangana Assembly on Thursday, July 25.
Responding to Finance minister Mallu Bhatti Vikramarka’s remarks in the Budget speech alleging irregularities under the BRS regime in the Irrigation sector, KCR said that his government granted Rythu Bandhu funds twice per year.
“The Congress is speaking of not doing it. They are calling our grants to farmers a misappropriation of funds. These are unfortunate remarks. This proves that they are an anti-farmer government,” he added.
Speaking further, the former chief minister called Bhatti’s speech a “political speech”. “There is nothing for the poor in this Budget,” he added.
Telangana Budget 2024-25
The Telangana government on Thursday presented a budget of Rs 2.91 lakh crore with a total of Rs 2.21 lakh crore in revenue and Rs 33, 487 crore in capital expenditures.
The total revenues were estimated to be at Rs 2,90, 814 crore, including Open Market Loans of over Rs 57,000 crore.
Mallu Bhatti Vikramarka who tabled the Budget in the Assembly said the state government proposed to allocate Rs 72,659 crores to agriculture.
The government also proposed to spend Rs.21,292 crores for the Education department and Rs.22,301 crores for Irrigation.
In this Budget, the government has proposed Rs.29,816 crores for Panchayath Raj and Rural Development.
“Telangana’s debt has reached Rs 6.71 lakh crore mark. In the last 10 years the state government debt has increased by ten times without any development proportionate to that,” Bhatti pointed out.
After the congress government took over, Rs 35,118 crore debt was raised while repaid loans worth Rs 42.892 crore, both principal and interest, he added.
(This is a developing story. The latest version will be updated)
