HYDERABAD: Deputy Chief Minister and Finance Minister Mallu Bhatti Vikramarka, while presenting the Budget in the Assembly on Thursday, came down heavily on the previous BRS government, referring, though obliquely, to former chief minister K Chandrasekhar Rao.
He said: “During the previous government, the state was administered like an estate of a private landlord. A bounteous state at the time of bifurcation was reduced to a pathetic state on account of the huge loan burden. It has reached such a sad state that paying salaries and pensions to employees and pensioners became a big challenge in itself. Because of this in-disciplined attitude and administration of the previous regime people across all sections suffered immensely.”
He said that the previous rulers who promised to transform the state into “Bangaru Telangana” failed miserably on all fronts. He alleged that the welfare of the people suffered and the state was mired in debt.
The deputy CM alleged that instead of focusing on maximising the benefits to the state through irrigation projects, the previous government focused on spending money for the benefit of a few. Consequently, the problems in irrigation remained as they were earlier. The state was pushed into a state where it could not use its own water resources efficiently. Bhatti noted that there was no correlation between the amounts spent and the progress achieved, during the previous rule.
Referring to unemployment during the BRS regime, Bhatti said that the issue of unemployment also was left unaddressed. “No new jobs were created. In respect to recruitment for the existing job vacancies also, the previous government showed a very lackadaisical attitude. It neglected this area leaving the unemployed youth in a desperate state. Whenever recruitments were initiated, most of them ended in paper leakages, irregularities, and inefficient conduct of exams,” the finance minister alleged.
Under the Rythu Bandhu scheme, the amount was transferred to many ineligible persons, owners of fallow lands, and real estate businessmen. As a result, precious public funds were wasted, he added.
“The BRS government had destroyed the autonomy of universities. They ran the universities by appointing in-charges rather than appointing full-time vice-chancellors. Due to this, the governance of universities and the education system became chaotic.”