Kids in Telangana born with Rs 1.25 lakh debt: Nirmala Sitharaman hits out at TRS

Union Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman, on Thursday, September 1, slammed the Telangana Rashtra Samithi (TRS) government in Telangana over the alleged rising debt, farmers' distress and other issues. The Finance Minister also came down heavily on the government for raising debts beyond Fiscal Responsibility and Budget Management (FRBM) limits and claimed that every child born in the state carries a Rs 1.25 lakh debt burden. FRBM limit implies the limit on State Government borrowings from the Union Government.

“The state, which used to be revenue surplus, has now gone into revenue deficit because of the huge debts,” the senior BJP leader said, speaking to reporters at Kamareddy on Thursday, the first day of her three-day visit to Zaheerabad Lok Sabha constituency as part of the BJP's 'Parliament Pravas Yojana'.

She said that the state was raising more debts than approved in the Budget and claimed that the Assembly was being kept in the dark about the debts raised outside. She also said that all the debts were not being included in the Budget and argued that the Union government has the right to question the state on debts.

“The Telangana Rashtra Samiti (TRS) government took loans outside the budget. Farmers' debt is rampant in the state and it is ranked fourth in farmers' suicides,” she said. The minister also accused the TRS government of changing the names of Union government schemes and projecting them as state's schemes. She said that though 'Our village, our school' is a scheme by the Union government, the TRS government is projecting it as a state scheme. She also slammed the state government for what she called inflating the cost of Kaleshwaram project to Rs 1.20 lakh crore.

FM Nirmala also said that the state had not joined Ayushman Bharat as the TRS realised that people would know the facts. She asked the state government as to why it was not implementing PM Fasal Bima Yojana.

Stating that Telangana was at fourth place among the states with highest number of farmers suicides, she claimed that 91 out of every 100 farmers in Telangana are burdened with loans. She also alleged that benefits of Rs 1 lakh loan waiver scheme have not reached the farmers.

Further, the Minister also wanted to know why the state government is not covering tenant farmers under the ‘Rythu Bima’ scheme. Referring to Chief Minister K Chandrasekhar Rao's visit to other states, she remarked that before going around in the country he should answer people of his own state.