HYDERABAD: Finance Minister T Harish Rao, on Monday, said that the State government would soon formulate a new mining policy facilitating the auctioning of mines so as to augment non-tax revenue.
Speaking at the State Legislative Assembly on Monday, Harish Rao said that the government would auction off the State's lands, and non-performing assets like Rajiv Swagruha and Gruha Kalpa houses for additional revenue.
The Finance Minister said that they were expecting Rs 16,000 crore through sale of lands in FY 2021-22. He added that the Central government's dues to the State were Rs 28,025 crore.
"We did not auction off the government lands in FY 2019-20 due to COVID-19," Harish Rao said, while allaying fears of CLP leader Mallu Bhatti Vikramarka, who expressed doubts over the realisation of projected revenue receipts in the Budget.
The Minister said that the NITI Aayog has recommended Rs 5,000 crore for Mission Kakatiya and Rs 19,205 crore for Mission Bhagiratha. The State is yet to receive Rs 1,129.93 crore grants, as suggested by the 13th FC, Rs 817.61 crore by the 14th FC, and Rs 1,350 crore backward region grant funds, he added.
Health Minister Eatala Rajender claimed in the Assembly on Monday that the scheme to distribute KCR kits had increased the percentage of institutional deliveries in the State. The Minister said nearly 50 per cent of the total deliveries being performed by doctors of government hospitals were now natural deliveries. The scheme had encouraged pregnant women to undergo natural deliveries instead of life-threatening C-section surgeries, he said
Municipal Administration Minister KT Rama Rao on Monday extended the time limit for fixing water meters at homes to claim 20,000 litres of free water until April 30. He urged consumers to link their Aadhaar cards with their consumer account number (CAN).
The earlier last date for fixing meters and the linking was March 31. Answering a question raised by MLC MS Prabhakar Rao in the Council, the Minister said about 95 per cent of consumers, excluding commercial establishments, would benefit under the scheme. He said consumers can get water meters fixed from the 24 empanelled agencies
Forest and Environment Minister A Indrakaran Reddy on Monday said that the forest cover in Telangana had gone up by 3.67 per cent due to the implementation of Telangana Ku Haritha Haram (TKHH) scheme.
So far, about 217 crore plants have been planted in the State under the TKHH programme. This includes 179 crore seedlings which were planted and 38 crore seedlings that have been rejuvenated. He was replying to a question raised by M Yadagiri Reddy and others during the question hour in the State Assembly
The Central government is providing only Rs 210 crore towards social security pensions (Aasara pensions) when compared to over Rs 11,500 crore being provided by the State government from its pocket to eligible beneficiaries.
Minister for Panchayat Raj Errabelli Dayakar Rao said the amount being given by the Central government was enough to meet the expenditure of only six lakh beneficiaries in the State, whereas the State has a total of 39,36,521 pensioners.
He revealed these figures while replying to questions raised by MLAs during question hour. He said the Telangana government was spending Rs 11,500 crore to give pensions to over 33 lakh beneficiaries including the aged, widows, single women, HIV patients and others
BJP MLA M Raghunandhan Rao on Monday said that there was no direct mention in the Andhra Pradesh Reorganisation Act, 2014, that a steel factory at Bayyaram or a coach factory at Kazipet would be established.
He said that the Act only suggested to constitute a technical committee and an expert committee to verify if establishing the factories was feasible. Addressing a press conference, Raghunandhan Rao said that Finance Minister T Harish Rao was mudslinging the Centre without giving his party a chance to clarify the accusations.
He said that the proposed Tribal University was still pending as the State was still undecided as to where to set it up
To prevent the loss of academic year due to the pandemic, about 80 per cent of Intermediate course syllabi in all junior colleges of the State were completed online via the T-SAT channel, said Education Minister Sabitha Indra Reddy.
Responding to questions raised by MLAs during the question hour, the Education Minister said that the total number of students in government junior colleges was going up every year in the State