HYDERABAD: BJP MLA Eatala Rajender, on Saturday, found fault with Finance Minister T Harish Rao for skipping the pre-budget meeting chaired by Union Minister for Finance Nirmala Sitharaman to discuss budgetary allocations and expenses for the next budget on Friday, which he said, showed the State government’s lack of commitment to its people and the future of the State.
“During the previous governments, there used to be the tradition of having departmental meetings to discuss the provisions of the next budget. Ministers and officials used to hold meetings and discuss the budget allocations before they were presented. But two years after the formation of Telangana, the tradition has been discontinued. Now, the Chief Minister calls the officials and prepares the budget as per his whims and fancies,” he said.
On the ruling party’s allegation that the Centre was preventing the State government from securing Rs 40,000 crore loans including FRBM and loans on guarantee, he reminded that these were neither part of the centrally sponsored schemes, nor any grants.
The BJP leader pointed out that the State government has already exceeded its borrowing limit as per the reports submitted by the Comptroller and Auditor General (CAG), and it wasn’t the fault of the Centre. Also noting that inflation in Telangana has reached 8.75 per cent, he said that the CM’s claim about Telangana being No. 1 in the country actually meant being No. 1 in breaking the back of the poor.
Addressing the training session of BJP Mahila Morcha workers on Saturday, he said that there was a time when there used to be separatists from Kashmir to Kanyakumari, but now Narendra Modi had been accepted as the prime minister by the entire country’s populace.
Stating that a majority of Muslims had voted for him in the Huzurabad byelection, Eatala said that even in the Uttar Pradesh Assembly elections, Muslims voted for BJP because they were benefited by the State government’s schemes.