HYDERABAD: Ridiculing the much-touted claim of “double-engine growth to prosperity” of Prime Minister Narendra Modi, Chief Minister K Chandrasekhar Rao on Tuesday said that it was more of a “trouble-engine”.
Replying to the debate on the Appropriation Bill in the Telangana Assembly, Rao compared the development indices of Uttar Pradesh with that of Telangana and dismissed the theory that the same party governing both the Centre and Sta-te ensures rapid development. His statement assumes importance in light of the BJP portraying itself as the challenger to TRS hegemony in the next Assembly elections.
With his statement, Rao indicated that there was no need to elect the BJP in the State for the development as TS was already No. 1 in per capita income while UP was languishing at second from the bottom in the list of States. The Chief Minister also ridiculed the Centre’s not-so-good performance, saying that it has affected the growth of Telangana. “The Gross State Domestic Product (GSDP) of the State is Rs 11.5 lakh crore now. If the Centre’s performance was good, the State’s GSDP would have been around Rs 15 lakh crore,” Rao said.
Accusing the Modi government of “fanaticism and diluting the spirit of federalism”, he said that even though there was no “double engine”, Telangana has achieved much progress.
“The per capita income of UP was Rs 71,000 against the Rs 2 lakh of Telangana. TS stood first among all the large States in the country in per capita income while UP is last but one. The growth rate of UP is 7.26 per cent while its 10.8 per cent for TS. The development growth rate of UP between 2017-2022 was 25.69 per cent, while it was 55.64 per cent for TS. The maternal mortality rate is 167 in UP and 56 in TS. The infant mortality rate (IMR) of UP is 41 and 23 of Telangana,” Rao explained.
Strong Centre - Weak States
The policy of the Modi government is “strong Centre and weak States”, which is ‘unhealthy and undemocratic’ and not desirable, Rao said.
Compared to Telangana’s economic performance, the performance of the Centre is very poor, he added. Rao also found fault with the Centre for adopting double standards in fixing two separate FRBM limits for the Centre and the States. “The Centre is defeating the federal spirit and sowing seeds of poison,” Rao alleged.
He said that the performance of the Modi government is worse than the previous UPA regime. “The US$ 5 trillion economy target of the Modi regime will never become a reality as the present growth rate is just six per cent. If the country’s growth rate is 16 per cent, then only would US$ 5 trillion become a reality,” Rao said.