Telangana on brink of financial ruin, says Kishan Reddy

HYDERABAD: Union Tourism Minister G Kishan Reddy on Thursday said that due to financial indiscipline, diversion of funds and large-scale corruption taking place under the leadership of Chief Minister K Chandrasekhar Rao, the State was at risk of bankruptcy and signs of an economic crisis were being seen under his rule.

Addressing the media in New Delhi, Kishan slammed the State government for misusing the digital key for drawing Central funds meant for gram panchayats and neither bringing this fact to the notice of sarpanches nor taking the consent of gram sabhas.

He also accused the Telangana government of diverting even NREGS funds to fill the coffers of big contractors “for works which were in no way useful for the poor”.“The aggrieved sarpanches didn’t even have the right to protest, and had to knock the doors of the judiciary to stage a protest,” Kishan claimed.

He said that it was because of the State government not sending the data of SC/ST students and their bank accounts as sought by the Centre, that Rs 300 crore scholarship assistance for students was pending.
“We wanted to deposit the funds directly into the accounts of the students. We don’t want to give the funds through private engineering colleges,” Kishan said.

Talking about the BRS leaders’ allegation against the Centre that the latter was using the investigative agencies to target the chief minister’s family members, he said: “When something is found fishy, agencies will investigate.”