The Congress demanded Chief Minister K. Chandrasekhar Rao take an all-party delegation to New Delhi for the injustice meted out to the State in the Union Budget, in order to seek more funds.
Not a single project from Telangana received Central funding during the last six years and this is a collective failure of the Centre and the State governments and this needs to redressed, senior Congress leader Mohammed Ali Shabbir said in a statement here. Even the promises made in the Andhra Pradesh Reorganisation Act have not been fulfilled.
TPCC president and Nalgonda MP N. Uttam Kumar Reddy also criticised the budget saying Telangana was totally neglected and there is nothing for unemployed youth, farmers, women, students, and the sectors that generate jobs have been completely ignored.
Mr. Reddy said the budget speech was completely silent on rising unemployment in the country which is at 45-year high and it failed to specify as to how it plans to double the income of farmers by 2022. The agriculture growth rate must be at least 11% for doubling the income but growth rate in agriculture was at 2.9%.
The Congress said that in 2019-20 budget, Telangana was promised ₹ 19,718 crore as its share in Central taxes. In the Revised Estimates, it has been reduced to ₹15,987 crore. This was a straight reduction of ₹3,731 crore or almost 18.9%. Further, for 2020-21, only ₹16,726 crore has been earmarked.
The party is of the view that Mr. Rao raised ₹2.5 lakh crore loans with an eye on the Central funds but now Telangana will suffer with huge debts and meagre share from Central government.
Mr. Shabbir Ali slammed Union Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman for presenting a non-realistic budget. She failed to increase the confidence of investors, and they lost ₹3.46 lakh crore within hours of budget presentation, he alleged.
Mr. Shabbir Ali also said there was no significant increase in the budget for Minorities Welfare. As against ₹4,700 crore in 2019-20, this year ₹5,029 crore has been earmarked with an increase of just ₹329 crore. However, he said nearly 71% of the budget allocated in 2019-20 has remained unspent.