The Rs.1 lakh-crore budget of Telangana State offered precious little to implement its ambitious programmes -- be it revival of agriculture, overcoming power crisis or addressing acute regional imbalances in the State, said Telugu Desam MLC Potla Nageswara Rao here on Monday.
Participating in the budget discussion in the Legislative Council, Mr. Nageswara Rao exposed the chinks in the Telangana State’s maiden budget and said some of its programmes like Haritha Haram for improving forest cover and distribution of three acre agricultural land to dalits were mutually contradictory.
The budget was silent on how and from where the government would procure land for distributing to dalit farmers. The average landholding decreased from 1.3 hectares in 2005-06 to 1.1 hectares in 2010-11 and 68 per cent of farmers in Telangana were marginal farmers. Could one increase landholding overnight like budget, he wondered.
Mr. Nageswara Rao said the budget failed to spell out concrete measures to strengthen the agriculture sector with over 55 per cent of people depending on it but only contributing 14 per cent to GSDP.
Widening gapDeploring that the budget proposals have nothing to bridge the gap between the demand and supply of energy, he said while demand was increasing by 11 to 14 per cent a year -- 700 MW, there was no allocation to proportionately increase generation. The key irrigation, health and Road and Building sectors ended up with meagre allocations, he said.
Dr. K. Nageshwar (PDF) expressed apprehensions that with a 17 per cent of fiscal deficit, imposition of taxes, more borrowings and cut on welfare programmes could become inevitable. The crisis-ridden power sector got only two per cent of budget allocations. While the burden on power subsidies was Rs. 6,300 crore, the revenue shortfall was about Rs. 3,200 crore and by 2015-16, power subsidy bill would be around Rs. 10,000 crore and power tariff increase would be another challenge.
Barring Rs. 5,000 crore for loan waiver, the allocation for the agriculture sector was less than that of in the combined State, he said. On land to dalit farmers, he said no proper exercise was done on that. There were three lakh dalit farmers and nine to 10 lakh acres were required. The government would require Rs. 50,000 crore to purchase land and with allocation of Rs.1,000 crore, it would become a 50-year project.
The KG to PG programme too had no funds and how could Telangana be transformed without education and skill development. The government should ponder on this, Dr. Nageshwar said.
