HYDERABAD: Tearing into BJP leaders’ claims on Central funds for Telangana, Finance Minister T Harish Rao on Saturday told BJP State president Bandi Sanjay and Union Minister G Kishan Reddy to first get the Centre to pay the arrears to the tune of Rs 7,183 crore to Telangana. He also advised Bandi Sanjay and Kishan Reddy to stop telling lies, and to speak truth during the Praja Sangrama Yatra instead.
Speaking with the media persons in Hyderabad on Saturday, Rao said that Rs 1,129 crore from 13th Finance Commission, Rs 817 crore from 14th Finance Commission, Rs 1,103 crore from 15th Finance Commission, Rs 1,350 crore from Backward Regions Development Fund (due for the last three years) assured under the AP Reorganisation Act, Rs 2,247 crore under GST compensation and CSS dues for the last seven years were yet to be paid to the State despite several representations and reminders given to the Centre.
He alleged that the Centre has deliberately stripped the States of their rights by reducing the consolidated funds from 41 per cent to 29.6 per cent, and by keeping the balance 11.4 per cent for itself as cess. Thus, the Centre has been punching holes in the State’s treasury.
Reminding the BJP leadership that cess on petrol and diesel was increased from Rs 9.40 and Rs 2.56 per litre in 2014 to Rs 27.90 and Rs 21.80 per litre in 2022 respectively, he said that the Centre’s revenue from petrol and diesel cess has increased from Rs 1,72,065 crore in 2014 to Rs 4,55,069 crore in 2021.
“They claim that international crude oil prices have gone up, so fuel price has increased, which is understandable. But what was the need to increase cess to such an extent,” he asked. He also pointed out how the Centre has increased LPG cylinder price from Rs 400 to Rs 1,050 and reduced subsidy on it from Rs 400 to Rs 40.
He further noted that the price of Potassium has doubled and that of other fertilisers has also increased. He said, let alone doubling farmers’ income, the NDA government has increased input costs in agriculture. Responding to claims made by Bandi Sanjay that the Centre was providing funds for all schemes and works were being taken up in Gram Panchayats, Harish wondered why the tractors, tankers, vaikunta dhamams, nurseries and dump yards seen in all gram panchayats in Telangana were not seen anywhere else. He invited Sanjay to Raichur in the neighbouring Karnataka to see if the villages there had the infrastructure like Telangana.
He clarified that Rs 4,979 crore for Palle Pragathi and Rs 2,288 crore for Pattana Pragathi were spent from the treasury of Telangana. He said that out of Rs 48,273 crore spent on Aasara pensions, the Centre contributed only 3.4 per cent (Rs 1,645 crore).
Terming Sanjay asking people to refer to BJP national vice-president DK Aruna as ‘RDS Arunamma’ as the joke of the millennium, Harish has dared Sanjay to confer national project status to Palamuru Rangareddy Lift Irrigation Scheme.