The Telangana Cabinet on Friday decided to clear the dues pertaining to fee reimbursement scheme, Aarogyasri health scheme and crop loan waiver instalment for the year in a month’s time. The decision comes in the wake of Opposition parties stepping up pressure on the government by taking up agitations. The Congress party held a rally at Bhupalapalli earlier this month criticising the ruling party for its inability to clear the dues of crop loan waiver, Aarogyasri and fee reimbursement, in spite of making tall claims of being a revenue-surplus State.
Similarly, CPI (M) recently launched Mahajana Padayatra. The government is planning to silence the Opposition parties by clearing the dues and denying them an opportunity to criticise it further.
“There’s no need to face criticism when we are making sincere efforts to address people’s problems,” Chief Minister K. Chandrasekhar Rao was understood to have told his Cabinet colleagues while directing the Finance Department to take necessary steps to clear the dues in a month’s time. It should not be a problem now that the State has increased borrowing limit of 3.5 per cent of GSDP under the Fiscal Responsibility and Budget Management (FRBM) Act, the Chief Minister was said to have observed.
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Official sources stated that Rs. 2,020 crore was released towards first tranche of amount to clear the third instalment of crop loan waiver on July 1 this year and another Rs. 2,230 crore is expected to be released as the second tranche. An amount of Rs. 8,076 crore was adjusted in the crop loan accounts of farmers covered under the loan waiver scheme in two instalments, out of the total waiver amount of about Rs. 17,000 crore. The Opposition parties have been demanding the government to clear the entire dues in one go instead of instalments through the next fiscal. Of Rs. 3,060 crore dues of fee reimbursement for 2015-16 academic year, Rs. 1,090 crore was already released and another Rs. 600 crore was in the process of being released, Deputy Chief Minister Kadiam Srihari told newspersons after the Cabinet meeting. The Cabinet also gave its nod for the long-pending demand of 2,487 language Pandits and 1,047 physical education teachers to upgrade their posts as school assistants. Further, it has cleared 90 days child care leave for all the State government women employees, including teachers, in addition to the six-month maternity leave.