Chief Minister K. Chandrasekhar Rao has said that Telangana has got only ₹ 81,362 crore from the Centre in the last four years while the contribution of the State to Centre’s revenues was two-and-a-half times more.
“The releases were not a rupee more than what was guaranteed under Article 270 of the Constitution under which taxes are collected by the Centre and shared with the State governments. The releases were also as per recommendations of the 14th Finance Commission and on par with all other States,” Mr. Rao told a press conference on Saturday.
He said the Centre did not even consider the recommendation of NITI Aayog to sanction ₹ 19,000 crore to Mission Bhagiratha and ₹ 5,000 crore to Mission Kakatiya programmes of the State government as they were unique in nature.
Mr. Rao released to reporters a statement showing the poor status of assurances given to Telangana under the States Reorganisation Act. The Centre had provided a budget this year for the setting up of a tribal university in the State as mentioned in the Act but it required a Central legislation to commence construction.
The amount required to set up the Horticulture University was at least ₹ 300 crore but the Centre sanctioned only ₹ 200 crore and released ₹ 135 crore so far. There was no commitment from Centre to give recurring grants to run the university. Steel Authority of India has set up a committee to examine the feasibility of setting up a Integrated steel plant at Bayyaram in Khammam, but it is yet to submit its final report.
4,000 MW power plant of NTPC : NTPC has started the work on two units of 800 MW each but the issue is pending before Neeraja Mathur committee constituted by the Centre after Andhra Pradesh cancelled the power purchase agreements of power utilities unilaterally. The power share of Telangana in Sileru project has not been finalised which is also plaguing the issue.
National Highways Authority of India sanctioned new highways in the State over 800 kms. Indian railways has not taken steps to set up Railway coach factory at Kazipet and no efforts were made to improve rail connectivity. The budget allocation was negligible. Peddapalli-Nizamabad and Manoharabad-Kothapalli railway lines are pending.
Centre was supposed to give tax incentives to promote industrialisation. Notification regarding tax incentive in the form of accelerated depreciation has not benefitted anyone. However, tax incentives on the lines of Himachal Pradesh and Uttarakhand have not been given which was expected from the Centre. ₹ 450 crore was yet to be sanctioned and released as backward area grants, he said.
