Congress members of Legislative Council Mohd Shabbir Ali and Ponguleti Sudhakar Reddy have termed the Vote on Account Budget for 2019-20 presented by TRS government as Vote on Parliament elections.

Speaking to media persons here on Friday, they said Vote on Account on the pretext that Centre did not present its full budget was a lame excuse. Centre did not present its budget because of impending elections but that would not be applicable for Telangana as the elections were over and the new government was in place.

There were no allocations for the double bedroom house, education, public health and no mention of maintenance budget for major schemes like Mission Bhagiratha.

The government said that with the funds to be given by the Centre, ₹8,000 crore would be available for gram panchayats but there was no clarity how much the State government would give. Importantly, it did not yet transfer even 10 out of 29 functions to the panchayats as per the amendment to the Constitution towards decentralisation of power and funds. The vote on account merely seemed like a statement and no specific allocations.

The TRS government took people for a ride and there was no sincerity to fulfil their aspirations, they added.

Mr. Shabbir Ali said the government unilaterally decided to wind up the budget session within three days without even giving time for opposition to study the budget as they were eager to push the appropriation bill at the earliest.