HYDERABAD: Continuing its emphasis on various welfare schemes touching every section of society, the State government on Thursday introduced a whopping Rs 1.74 lakh crore budget for the 2018-19 fiscal year, with a special focus on farmers’ welfare and Aasara pensions.While irrigation continues to get top priority with Rs 25,000 crore allocation, farmers’ investment support scheme, a unique one in the country, was allocated Rs 12,000 crore in the budget.
In accordance with Chief Minister K Chandrasekhar Rao’s priority for farmers’s wellbeing, Finance Minister Etela Rajender allocated funds for crop investment support scheme, 24x7 free power to farming sector, Farmer Group Insurance Scheme called Rythu Bhima, interest free loans to ryots, farm mechanisation and other programmes in agriculture sector in the budget, introduced in the State Assembly on Thursday.
An amount of Rs 15,788 crore was proposed for agriculture and marketing sectors.Though, no new scheme, except already announced investment support and insurance for farmers, has been introduced in the budget, the Finance Minister tried to prepare a “please-all” budget to satisfy every section like weavers, women Self Help Groups and employees, probably eyeing next Assembly elections. Against the backdrop of opposition parties’ allegation that the State government had forgotten its poll promises, the Finance Minister tried to allocate “some” amount to almost all schemes like distribution of three acre land to each Dalit family and construction of 2 BHK houses to the poor, thus making it clear that his government is committed to implement all poll promises.
Further the government also decided to conduct free medical tests to all people.
Similarly, eye tests would be conducted and spectacles would be given free of cost. Allocations were made to Amma Vodi Scheme and KCR Kits. Coming to welfare, significant attention was given to Aasara pensions to support the destitute and helpless. As per the scheme, a monthly pension of `1,000 is being paid to the aged, widows, toddy tappers, weavers, AIDS patients, beedi workers, and lonely women. Pensions at the rate of Rs 1,500 per month were being given to differently-abled persons and aged artistes. Besides, the government has decided to give`1,000 for filaria patients.
“In the combined State, Rs 853 crore was spent on pensions to 31 lakh people at a rate of Rs 200 per month, while our government is spending Rs 5,300 crore per year for 41,78,291 people. This bears testimony to our government’s concern for the poor and helpless,” Rajender said.
The government has given top priority for welfare of all vulnerable sections: Rs 5,920 crore for Backward Classes welfare, Rs 2,643 crore for double bedroom houses, Rs 1,469 crore for distribution of three acres to Dalits, Rs 1,450 crore for Kalyana Lakshmi and Shaadi Mubaarak. Similarly, Rs12,709 crore was allocated for Scheduled Caste Development, Rs 8,063 crore for Tribal welfare, and Rs 735 crore for Minority residential schools and Rs 2,000 crore for welfare of minorities. To prove that the government is keen on welfare of all communities, Rs100 crore was allocated to the Brahmin Welfare Corporation, besides sanctioning Rs 10 crore for construction of Reddy Hostel Building Complex at Budwel in Hyderabad.
For the welfare of journalists, an amount of Rs 75 crore was proposed. A special fund with a corpus of Rs100 crore will be set up for advocates’ welfare.
“The government has decided to allocate land in Hyderabad for construction of buildings for each of the communities,” the Finance Minister informed. He allocated Rs 174.5 crore for the Overseas Study scheme for students belonging to downtrodden classes. Earlier, while presenting the budget in the House for the fifth consecutive time, Rajender said, “I am glad to bring to the notice of this August House that Telangana achieved a double-digit growth bucking the national trend, despite the adverse short term to medium term impact of demonetisation and the teething problems following the introduction of GST.”
“Overall, GSDP at current prices which was Rs 6,41,985 crore last year (2016-17) is estimated to increase to Rs 7,32,657 crore in 2017-18, recording a growth of 14.1%. The growth of per capita income is improving year after year. The per capita income of the State at current prices is estimated to increase by 13.4% from Rs 1,54,734 in 2016-17 to Rs 1,75,534 in 2017-18.”This is significantly higher than the national growth of 8.6%, Rajender added.