Telangana Bharatiya Janata Party leaders were unanimous in their opinion that the State Budget presented by Minister for Finance T Harish Rao was a “pack of lies, fudged figures, empty promises” and “hollow rhetoric”. Reacting to the budget separately, they charged that this was yet another attempt by the BRS government to “hoodwink the people since there was no match between allocations made and what was actually spent”.
Telangana unit president Bandi Sanjay Kumar felt that the budget was election-oriented with Mr. Harish Rao indulging in “self-boasting” and “Centre-bashing” ignoring the interests of the weaker sections and the poor. “It has come as a big disappointment for the people who were expecting the Chandrasekhar Rao government to implement his pre-election promises at least during the election year,” he said.
The allocations made for the SC/ST/OBCs was “too meagre”, compared to their population. So was the case with the allocations to education and health sector, which would result in heavy burden on the common man, he said. Allocations made for irrigation and power sectors were not sufficient even to repay the borrowings and salaries of the employees.
“While the budget outlay was projected at ₹2.90 lakh crore, the government had projected the revenue receipts as only ₹1.31 lakh crore. It is shameful on the part of the government not to show how it wants to mobilise ₹1.60 lakh crore. In fact, the Central government itself will be paying ₹62,000 crore through tax devolutions and grants. It appears the government wants to mobilise the remaining money through sale of lands and additional borrowings,” he observed.
Union Minister for Tourism, Culture and Development of North East G. Kishan Reddy said the budget was about “unkempt” promises and “lies”. People of Telangana can easily see through these gimmicks, he said. Rajya Sabha MP and national OBC president K. Laxman termed the budget as “new wine in old bottle” and “jugglery of figures” to fool the people again.
There was a yawning gap between the lofty announcements and high allocations made when the reality was that there was little to show by implementation on the ground, he added. Other leaders like former Minister Eatala Rajender also criticised the budget for having nothing beneficial for the common man.
