HYDERABAD: AT at time when the Andhra Pradesh government is exerting pressure on the Centre for more funds and implementation of the AP Reorganisation Act provisions. Telangana chief minister K Chandrasekhar Rao will meet Union finance minister Arun Jaitley on Tuesday or Wednesday and is likely to discuss issues relating to the Union budget, the funds required for Telangana and other matters. According to sources, the chief minister, who was in Delhi, called state finance officials on Monday and asked them to rush to Delhi immediately though Tuesday is a holiday on account of Maha Sivaratri. Accordingly, the officials will go to Delhi on Tuesday.
According to sources, the chief minister K Chandrasekhar Rao sought the appointment of the Union finance minister Arun Jaitley to discuss state issues with him. It is not clear whether K Chandrasekhar Rao will also meet prime minister Narendra Modi, who has returned from his foreign tour.Actually, Rao went to Delhi on some personal work but suddenly asked the finance officials to go over to Delhi to take up the pending issues with the Union minister. The state was discontented with the meagre allocations in the Union budget.
The non-allocation of funds for projects including AIIMS and Kaleshwaram irked K Chandrasekhar Rao. The state has been repeatedly urging the Centre to declare the Kaleshwaram lift irrigation scheme as a project of national importance.Besides budgetary allocations, the Telangana government has been demanding a fresh look into the central tax devolution to the states. The state devolution formula of the 14th Finance Commission is benefiting only poor and non-performing states while better performing states like Telangana have not received much.
The Telangana government is of the view that the tax devolution pattern should change at least when the 15th Finance Commission comes into being. That the current tax devolution and budgetary allocation are favouring only northern states and not southern states is the strong opinion of the K Chandrasekhar Rao government.