Meagre allocations for farm sector and fee reimbursement, gap between budget and expenditure, and absence of any mention about jobs were the main issues raised by the Opposition, in criticism of the Budget 2017-18 presented by Finance Minister Etala Rajender on Monday.
BC leader and TDP legislator R. Krishnaiah faulted the allocations for livestock and handlooms shown under BC Welfare, and said they belonged to Animal Husbandry & Fisheries and Handlooms & Textiles instead.
“We want our children to study and prosper. For that, scholarships, mess charges are to be raised. For three years, nobody got loans from any of the 12 BC federations,” Mr. Krishnaiah said. On allocations to Most Backward Classes, he said definition of MBCs is neither clear nor scientific. There are 2 lakh job vacancies, but the budget does not speak about filling them.
Inadequate allocation
A.Revanth Reddy, also from TDP, criticised the budget as grandiose and impractical. Referring to the huge gap between budget outlay and expenditure over the last three years, Mr.Reddy said the same will be repeated this year. Unless ₹15,000 crore is allocated, the loan waiver will not be complete along with interest payment, he said.
Fee reimbursement too needs higher outlay, and no allocations have been made for land for SCs and STs. The budget benefits contractors alone, he charged.
Sunnam Rajaiah from CPI(M) called it a budget that neglects social justice. Allocations for BCs is far less, and there is no mention of land for dalits. Congress MLA G.Chinnna Reddy termed the budget “insipid and far from reality”. There is no mention of jobs, nor about the PRC arrears. Allocation to farmers is meagre, he pointed out.
T.Rammohan Reddy, another Congress legislator reminded that the Chief Minister had promised to waive interest on loans too, but the present budget kept mum on that.
Addressing a press conference, BJP floor leader G.Kishan Reddy said the debt burden has been rising since TRS came to power, even without the loans proposed for crucial schemes such as Mission Bhagiratha and double bedroom houses. Each year, ₹16,000 crore will go into debt servicing.
Ruling party members Karne Prabhakar, V.Srinivas Goud, Ganesh Gupta and others hailed the increased benefit under Kalyana Lakshmi and the allocations for pregnant women, MBCs and BCs.
