Telangana: 2BHK scheme for poor will continue alongside new schemes, says Harish Rao

Hyderabad: Telangana finance minister T Harish Rao said the double-bedroom housing scheme will be implemented alongside newly-proposed scheme to provide one-time financial assistance to those with vacant land.

The state government has proposed to implement a housing scheme to provide a one-time grant of Rs 3 lakh in rural and Rs 5 lakh in urban areas across Telangana.

“Telangana will obtain funds from Housing and Urban Development Corporation (HUDCO) for its implementation with a Budget outlay of Rs 12,000 crore already proposed in the state Budget presented on Monday,'” said the minister.

While responding to issues raised by the MLAs in the Legislative Assembly during the general discussion on the state Budget on Wednesday, Harish Rao said the Pay Revision Commission arrears will be cleared soon and one of three DAs has been already given to the government employees with the Telangana Cabinet soon take a decision on the remaining DAs.

“Developmental works in the old buildings of the Osmania General Hospital and the Unani Hospital are already underway,” said Harish Rao.

“No fresh taxes during the current fiscal will be imposed by the state government this year with mobilising revenue resources of Rs 2,000 crore by June this year, through increasing efficiency in tax collections, land auctions, and removal of unnecessary assets among others, ” added the minister.

A draft of the much-awaited ‘sports policy’ to promote sports in the state is ready and will be released soon.

The budget rift between the Central and state government

Harish Rao asserted that the Telangana government will not hesitate to approach the court of law if the Centre continues to delay the decision on finalising the share of Krishna water to the state.

Telangana government has earlier approached the Supreme Court on the issue but withdrew the petition following the assurance from the Union Water Resources minister that the issue will be resolved soon.

“But months on, the Centre is still sitting on the decision. We will not hesitate to approach the court of law as we have our concerns over the share of river water,” he told the Legislative Assembly on Wednesday.

Harish Rao while replying to the marathon general discussion on the state budget claimed that the BJP leaders from the state should convince their party-led Union Government if they were committed to the cause of Telangana.

Referring to the achievements made by Telangana in the agriculture sector, he launched a broadside against the Centre for ignoring the interests of farmers.

“While Telangana Government had spent Rs 1.92 lakh crore on farmers’ welfare, the Centre had drastically reduced the allocations to farmers’ welfare schemes like Fasal Bima Yojana and PM Kisan Samman Nidhi,” remarked Harish.

“The state’s debt to GDP ratio which was 55.9 per cent this year is expected to increase to 56.2 per cent next fiscal. At the same time, Telangana’s GSDP is projected to reach ₹13.5 lakh crore at the end of the current fiscal,” he said.

Harish Rao further explained the Centre’s unilateral decision to reduce loans under the FRBM Act that resulted in a net deficit of Rs 15,033 crore to the state.

The Centre was insisting on fixing meters to farm sector connections to avail of borrowings of 3.5 per cent GSDP, but the state was firmly against it. “This has resulted in shortfall of ₹16,653 crore over the past few years, but we are committed not to fix meters to farm connections,” he said.

The Centre on its part had not fulfilled its promise of bringing down the fiscal deficit to around three per cent by Fiscal year 21 and the deficit in the current budget was projected at 6.3 per cent. “Weak States and strong Centre appears to be the motto of the present Government,” he said.

The Centre which was imposing cuts in the borrowings of the non-BJP ruled states was in fact raising huge amounts. “The Centre is raising Rs 1 lakh crore borrowings every month, Rs. 4,618 crore every day while it was paying interest of Rs 2,959 crore a day on an average to service the debt,” remarked Harish Rao.