The State budget is as usual a mix of welfare measures and infrastructure development. Focus was more on freebies, farmers and so-called welfare which truly means transfer of public money to members of public.
Welfare schemes and construction of projects involve thousands of crore of rupees giving huge scope for corruption. Without proper checks and transparency, the public money may get drained. However, real focus on infrastructure investments, education and health sector is missing.
The budget has become an ordinary sheet of numbers and figures, percentages and comparisons. The real budget should raise hopes of common man for their overall economic development. Allocating Rs 10,000 crore for greater Hyderabad is great. But will it improve the condition of roads in residential areas? Will they build footpaths?
The government should have a vision for health and education.Only new point that appears in Harish Rao’s budget is opening of 232 new basti clinics. School education gets Rs 10,421 crore while higher education is given Rs 1,723 crore and Rs 2,650 crore is going to be spent on fee reimbursement.
Increase in budget outlay by Rs 40,762 crore shows the growth, in spite of fall in revenue due to reduction of State’s share in taxes from Centre but real increase is only from Rs 1,37,226 crore to Rs 1,42,152 crore which is revised budget for last year.
There is substantial increase in allocations for welfare schemes, concentrating on effective implementation of existing schemes, farm loan waiver, increase for Rythu Bandhu, farm insurance and Market intervention Fund.
There should be radical transformation in budgeting for the people with more focus on infrastructure development, health and education.
(The writer is former Central Information Commissioner.)