The budget of the Telangana State is literally sent back to the drawing board when the budget proposals were almost finalised for the approval of Chief Minister K. Chandrasekhar Rao.
The State government may bring an ordinance to present the budget most likely in October after the Medak by-election and technically a new State, it is understood, could take time up to six months to present its first budget and Governor E.S.L. Narasimhan gave his nod when Chief Minister sought more time to convene the budget session.
For the Chief Minister is apparently not happy with the ‘old wine in new bottle’ mode of budget and he wanted the budget to reflect an innovative and refreshing approach that will help translate his vision for the fast paced development of Telangana.
This indeed came as a surprise for the officialdom as considerable exercise went into budget preparation with the ‘bottom to top’ approach and priority was given to the felt needs of people at grass root level, from panchayat, mandal to the district level and to reflect them in the budget.
But sources said while the participatory preparation of budget was one good aspect of the budgetary exercise, the Chief Minister was not too happy as the departments more or less stuck to status quo rather than giving a new perspective and much needed direction for the new State to make its mark in the coming years.
“The key departments should draft their policies in such a way that will facilitate wealth creation and also identify from where the resources can be tapped,” he is believed to have said. Citing the example of Singareni Collieries Company Ltd., he asked the officials why the world’s oldest coal company be confined to Bellampally, Kothagudem and the belt. Explore the possibility of the company going abroad to mineral rich countries for exploration with its expertise, Mr. Rao is believed to have told the officials.
Brushing away the idea of budget as an income and expenditure statement, he wanted the departments like agriculture, mines, to do resource mapping and identify key performance indicators and also fix the targets.
It is just not enough to state the intent in the budget but also spell out policy and the road map for providing basic amenities like drinking water, toilets, agriculture, power, green cover etc. “How do you make it mandatory, does your budget provide for it,” are some of several questions Mr. Rao posed in the recent meeting.
Asked whether the budget proposals were being thoroughly revamped, officials said:
Yes efforts are on. It’s a new State and lot of brainstorming is required.
Though initially the budget preparatory meetings had to be speeded up given the limitation of presenting the budget by September-end, the Chief Minister preferred thorough ground work to be done to lay a solid foundation for the next four year budgets to unveil a new Telangana State, sources added. They were given 15 days time to turn around the budget document.
