SANGAREDDY: Accusing the Union government at the Centre of trying to create financial problems for Telangana, State Finance Minister T Harish Rao on Tuesday spoke at length of how the Centre was trying to create problems for the State government.
Harish Rao, who toured Sangareddy town extensively, had a brief chit chat with journalists at the Collectorate where he said that FCI teams were sent to rice mills and they found that one kg of grain was less than the record in one rice mill and three bags less in a rice mill that had 50,000 bags. “It is strange to talk about three bags where there are 50,000 bags,” the Minister said.He said that just as the NREGA was stopped in the West Bengal state, there is a conspiracy to stop the NREGA in Telangana as well.
“Our government has been implementing the employment guarantee scheme five times in seven years in a transparent and efficient manner and the Centre has given awards for five years. Now, instead of sending them to any other State in the country, it has sent 19 Central teams to Telangana to investigate the NREGA works. Going by the Centre’s actions, it seems that they are trying to pick feathers from eggs,” Harish Rao said.
He said that in the past, one or two teams would come to the State to inspect the work, but this year 19 teams were sent. The officials who came said that they would inspect the work in the villages they liked. Officials have been investigating how many cubic metres of soil were taken and added that they are trying to calculate inch by inch how deep the pit has been dug. The rains have washed away the soil on the ayacut into the dug pits. How will they measure this?” Harish Rao wondered.
He said that the intention behind this was nothing but troubling the State government. “A similar policy was implemented and NREGA stopped for We-st Bengal,” the Minister said.He said that at first, the Centre refused to buy boiled rice sown in Rabi season. “Because of the heat in Telangana, only boiled rice can be made with the paddy purchased here, and if raw rice is to be made, 75 percent of the paddy will become broken rice,” the Minister pointed out.
“However, they finally agreed to purchase it by saying that the State government will bear the loss due to broken rice. The State government spent Rs 22,000 crore and purchased paddy from the farmers which the FCI didn’t move on time. This paddy should have been moved immediately. Now, as a result of the rains, the paddy is getting soaked in rice mills,” Harish Rao said.
He said that if the Centre buys the paddy immediately, the State government would have to bear the loss of Rs 4,000 crore but at least Rs 18,000 crore would have to come to the State. The Minister said Telangana government was giving priority to education and health. “That is why Basthi Dawakh-anas are being set up in towns. In the coming days, we will be setting up Village Dawakhanas. This concept is already being implemented in other parts of the State and they would soon be established in Sangareddy district as well,” he said.