The ruling Telugu Desam government submitting a report to the 15th Finance Commission without consulting the Opposition or conducting an all-party meeting was undemocratic, said YSR Congress Party leader and Legislative Assembly Public Accounts Committee (PAC) Chairman Buggana Rajendranath Reddy.
‘Thanked Centre’
Addressing the media in the party office in Hyderabad on Friday, the PAC chairman said that Chief Minister N Chandrababu Naidu complaining to the Finance Commission about not being given Special Category Status (SCS) to the State was astonishing considering the fact that the TDP government thanked the Union government for the special package it granted in place of the SCS on record in the Legislative Assembly.
He also recalled how the TDP leaders heckled YSR Congress Party president Y.S. Jagan Mohan Reddy when he said that the Finance Commission had nothing to do with SCS. The very same TDP leaders were today making a similar case to the Finance Commission, Mr. Rajendranath pointed out.
Mr. Rajendranath Reddy charged the State government with taking huge loans after projecting wrong figures about the investments flowing into the State and the jobs going to be generated.
‘Contradictory claims’
He said that the claims being made by the State government were contradictory. Even while claiming that there was very little growth in the industrial and services sector, it was saying that the State as a whole was growing. Though there was a reduction in agricultural yields in the State due to deficit rainfall the government was saying agricultural growth rate had increased, he added.
‘Misrepresentation of facts’
While the State received investments in thousands of crores and jobs generated were also in thousands, the TDP leaders were claiming that lakhs of crore had been received as investment and lakhs of jobs were being generated. They were trying to push the State into debts with cooked up figures, the MLA alleged.