HYDERABAD: Chief Minister K Chandrasekhar Rao alleged that Union Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman’s Budget had hoodwinked the entire nation with meagre allocations to SCs and STs. Rao took Nirmala Sitharaman to task for reciting slokas from Shanti Parvam of Mahabharata, which highlight Dharma, but the minister in fact had done “Adharma” to the people.
“The Union Budget is gundu sunna (big zero) and Golmaal Govindam (cheating by jugglery),” Rao alleged.Recalling that the State government allocated Rs 33,611 crore in the State Budget for the SC and ST sub-plan, the Chief Minister said: “For around 40 crore population of SCs and STs in the country, the Centre proposed only Rs 12,800 crore in 2022-23 Budget.”
The Budget estimates proposed Rs 17,165.98 crore regular tax devolution at 2.102 per cent and some regular funds for health and education and nothing more. The State sought over Rs 50,000 crore special funds for various projects in the State.
“The Centre had released only Rs 42,000 crore in the last eight years to Telangana. But, for the same period, the State disbursed Rs 50,600 crore for farmers under Rythu Bandhu scheme. The Centre’s releases to State are not a match even to one scheme of the State government. Telangana is one among the five to six States which are feeding the country. Its annual contribution by way of taxes to the Centre is around Rs 50,000 crore to Rs 60,000 crore. But, in return, TS was getting just around Rs 20,000 crore as Central devolutions, which are the State’s right anyway,” he said.
Alleging that the Centre failed to leverage on the economy, he said: “The country has everything but only thing that is lacking is brains in the national leadership.”
