Union Labour Minister Bandaru Dattatreya said the Telangana government was going to get funds to the tune of ₹5,920 crore from the Union Budget, apart from the annual ₹1,000 crore tax share, plus another ₹15,000 to ₹20,000 crore for various capital intensive works.
Addressing a press conference at the ESIC office here on Thursday, Mr. Dattatreya was all praise for the Union Budget presented by Finance Minister Arun Jaitley, saying it was “innovative, path breaking, revolutionary, development oriented, and progressive with focus on agriculture and rural development as well social welfare, considering the unprecedented allocations made for infrastructure development.”
The Union Minister said Telangana could hope to have several projects funded by the Centre, and among those would be ₹1,600 crore for setting up flouride rehabilitation centres and drinking water supply to 2,500 villages and 25 lakh affected population, ₹2,145 crore for employment generation, ₹162 crore for Hyderabad IIT, ₹284.20 crore for various research and development facilities, etc.
The budget reflected Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s philosophy of ‘Sabke Saath, Sabka Vikas’ and ‘Bharat Nirman,’ as ₹58,793 crore has been allocated for the welfare of SC/ST/BCs and minorities. The employment generated through infrastructural development would directly benefit them.
Mr. Dattatreya was especially happy about the setting up of funds for skills development and emphasis for more postgraduate seats in medical colleges. The ESIC Medical College would be getting 75 additional PG seats under the programme.
The Prime Minister and the Finance Minister were also praised for cutting income tax rates, curbing donations for political parties, and increasing funds to the MNREGAS, among others.
