Working president of the Telangana Rashtra Samithi (TRS) K.T. Rama Rao has hit back hard at Union Home Minister Amit Shah, who made caustic remarks against the TRS government and leadership during his visit to the city on Saturday, and made it clear that the steering of the government was very much in the hands of TRS.
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He remarked that the steering of the government at the Centre had, in deed, gone into the hands of corporates and people of the country were well aware as to who were driving the country now. “The BJP government at the Centre has been misusing the constitutional bodies and agencies to victimise political opponents but it won’t go for long as the democracy (people) in the country is wise enough and the Centre can’t continue to deceive people with lies forever,” Mr. Rama Rao said addressing a press conference here on Sunday.
Reacting to Mr. Shah’s comments that Chief Minister K. Chandrasekhar Rao had forced Telangana into a debt trap, Mr. Rama Rao, who is also the Minister for IT, Industries and Urban Development said the borrowings of Telangana were very much in the limits prescribed by the regulations such as Fiscal Responsibility and Budget Management Act. However, the Centre had borrowed ₹100 lakh crore during the last eight years against ₹56 lakh crore borrowed in 65 years after independence.
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The country’s debt was ₹56,69,428 crore in 2014, but it was set to cross ₹100 lakh crore by March next, Mr. Rama Rao said and sought to know as to who had forced the country into the debt trap. In the ratio of debt to GSDP, Telangana was in the 23rd position (one of the lowest) among 28 States and it was the BJP-ruled States which were at the top of the list.
He explained that the borrowings of Telangana were for betterment of living by completing Mission Bhagiratha programme to provide treated drinking water to every household and Kaleshwaram irrigation project to jack up agricultural production by improving the irrigation facilities and sought to know for what purpose the Centre had borrowed money. The Centre had collected ₹26 lakh crore as taxes on petrol and diesel so far and had written off another ₹11.68 lakh crore of corporates as non-performing assets, he pointed out.
Further, he stated that NITI Aayog had recommended grant of ₹25,000 crore to Mission Kakatiya and ₹19,000 crore to Mission Bhagiratha projects but the Centre had not trickled even a paisa.