HYDERABAD: The Central government is showing step-motherly attitude towards Telangana in releasing central grants and its share of taxes, MIM floor leader Akbaruddin Owaisi said on Monday.
Participating in the first-day general discussion of the state budget in the State legislative Assembly, Owaisi observed that due to the non-release of Central funds, the State government was going in for huge borrowings to take up developmental works. The Centre was supposed to release `14,557 crore to the state in 2016-17 but released just `9,752 crore. In 2017-18, as against the commitment of `26,867 crore, the Centre released only `6,860 crore till January 2018. In 2018-19, the Centre is to release `29,042 crore as grants and `19,207 crore as share of taxes — a total of `48,251 crore. Going by the past record, the release of funds from Centre in forthcoming fiscal year was doubtful, he said.
Even though NITI Ayog had recommended `24,000 crore for Mission Bhagiratha and Mission Kakatiya, the Centre did not take any decision in the last two years. It did not even respond on the plea for national project status to the Kaleshwaram lift irrigation scheme.
While thanking the State government for allotting `2,000 crore for the welfare of Minorities, Akbaruddin said the allocation to minorities in Maharashtra was just `300 crore in that state’s `3.67 lakh crore budget. However, he pointed out that the spending on minorities was only `842 crore, which was 70 per cent of the total allocation in 2016-17 and it was Rs 819 crore in 2017-18. Though the allocations increased in 2017-18, the spending decreased, he noted and demanded that minorities be treated on a par with SCs and STs while implementing schemes.
TRS member Vemula Veeresham said the state budget gave a new direction to the entire country on implementation of welfare and developmental schemes. TDP’s Sandra Venkata Veeraiah and CPM’s Sunnam Rajaiah also participated in the debate which will continue on Tuesday.