HYDERABAD: The Telangana Legislative Assembly on Wednesday adopted a resolution expressing its strong protest and unhappiness over the Centre’s “neglect” of the state in the 2024-25 Union Budget presented by Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman on Tuesday.
Tabling the resolution in the Assembly, Chief Minister A Revanth Reddy said that the Union Budget was not just discriminatory, but “revenge” and needs to be condemned.
He also confirmed that he would be boycotting the Niti Aayog meeting on July 27, which Prime Minister Narendra Modi will chair, in protest against the “infringement of Telangana’s rights, not issuing required permissions, and not allocating the rightful share of funds to the state” in the Union Budget.
The chief minister also criticised BJP MLAs, saying that members of the Assembly were trying to protect the BJP-led NDA government and Prime Minister Narendra Modi.
Revanth laid bare the stark difference of approach of the Centre towards the southern and northern states, stating that the Union government collected Rs 22.26 lakh crore in GST revenue from the five southern states - Telangana, Andhra Pradesh, Karnataka, Kerala and Tamil Nadu - and gave back just Rs 6.42 lakh crore. In contrast, the Centre collected Rs 3.41 lakh crore from Uttar Pradesh and gave it Rs 6.91 lakh crore, which is more than the total amount paid to five southern states.
While Telangana contributed Rs 3.68 lakh crore to the Centre in the past five years, it got back just Rs 1.68 lakh crore, the chief minister added.
“For every rupee that Telangana contributes to the Centre, we are getting just 47 paisa in return. At the same time, Bihar is getting Rs 7.26 for every rupee. Same is the case with Uttar Pradesh,” Revanth said.
He said that he and his Cabinet colleagues, during their 18 visits to Delhi, clearly conveyed to the Centre to give funds for projects like the Musi Riverfront Development, Regional Ring Road, Metro Rail expansion etc., and sought permission for Pharma City to achieve the goal of Rs 5 trillion economy. “However, our requests went in vain,” he said.
CM criticises BJP MLAs for trying to defend Centre
Lambasting the arguments put forth by the BJP MLAs that the Centre has been giving funds to the state, Revanth asked: “Did Modi give funds by selling his estates in Gujarat? Or by selling Jagirdar lands in Gujarat? This resolution was brought as we have not been given our rightful share in violation of the AP Reorganisation Act.”
The resolution read: “After the people’s government assumed power in the state, the chief minister and ministers met Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Union ministers several times and made appeals to them.”
“The chief minister and ministers requested the Union government to provide financial assistance for the projects, release of funds as per the AP Reorganisation Act and resolve the long-pending state issues. The Union government completely neglected the state government’s pleas and discriminated against it in the Budget allocations to Telangana. The state Assembly registers its strong protest over the Centre’s neglect of Telangana,” the resolution added.
After the resolution was adopted, the House was adjourned till Thursday.