The first budget presented after Telangana was created on June 2, by Finance Minister Eatala Rajender drew flak from the Opposition that termed it direction-less, as one that was full of broken promises and nothing but a jugglery of numbers.
Leader of Opposition in the Assembly, K. Jana Reddy said it was regrettable that on a day when the most-awaited budget in the new State was presented by the Finance Minister , it held nothing but dashed aspirations and hopes of the people, one that full of disappointments. “On no count did the budget offer us any clarity. We will analyse it further,” he said.
Mr. Reddy and senior Congress members in the Assembly including J. Geeta Reddy, Bhatti Vikramarka, T. Jeevan Reddy said there was absolutely nothing in the budget that spelt happiness for farmers whose suicides continued with no guarantee of loan waiver or crop insurance, for students who were not sure of getting fee reimbursement or for unemployed youth who were eagerly awaiting government jobs.
The Telugu Desam Legislature Party too said it was a budget full of ‘disappointments and dashed hopes’ and in which even the sacrifices of martyrs for Telangana were ignored. The party’s Floor Leader Erraballi Dayakar Rao, Deputy Floor Leader S. Venkata Veeraiah, Revanth Reddy and R. Krishnaiah regretted that there was no clarity on any sector that represented the people and their interests.
The TDP members alleged that from the allocations that were made, it even appeared as if the departments handled by Chief Minister K. Chandrasekhar Rao’s son K.T. Rama Rao and nephew T. Harish Rao were given preferential treatment. It also looked like a budget showcasing the negligence and irresponsibility of the government towards people’s welfare but one that revealed its preference to satisfy ‘contractors and corporates’.
Floor Leader of the BJP , K. Laxman regretted that a direction-less budget didn’t even contain any steps to stop farmers’ suicides or anything about drought relief, declaration of mandals that received scanty rainfall as drought-hit and the attendant financial assistance in the form of crop insurance and fresh loans.
The Majlis-e-Ittehadul Muslimeen (MIM) welcomed the first budget of the TRS government and said it sought to fulfil the promises made by TRS in its election manifesto. Party Floor Leader, Akbaruddin Owaisi, said the over Rs. 1 lakh crore budget ensured faster development of the State as well as continuance of welfare schemes. The Rs. 1,030 crore allocated for minorities was an enormous increase.
He also welcomed the substantial allocation of Rs. 345 crore made for the teaching hospitals in Hyderabad and Rs. 1,248 crore for GHMC. “The budget is very ambitious but its realisation will depend on achieving additional revenue mobilisation in the remaining five months of the financial year”, Mr. Owaisi said and hoped that every rupee sanctioned would be spent judiciously.
