The State government will hold a week-long session of the Assembly in December to discuss the irrational economic policies of the Centre with the objective to scuttle the growth path of Telangana.
A release of the CMO said the Centre had fixed the borrowing limit of Telangana as per Fiscal Responsibility and Budget Management (FRBM) norms at ₹ 54,000 crore at the beginning of the current financial year. Based on the projection, the State government had framed its budget. But, the Centre all of a sudden cut short the limit to ₹ 39,000 crore. Thus, the State’s resources dropped by ₹ 15,000 crore.
Also, the FRBM limit was relaxed by 0.5 per cent for States which were financially sound. But, the Centre saw to it that Telangana which was highly strong financially did not access this relaxation by laying down a condition that the facility will be extended only if it implemented power reforms. This was anti-farmer and anti-agriculture step put forth by the Centre.
Chief Minister K. Chandrasekhar Rao had already made his stand clear that the State government will not do anything that will harm the interests of farmers, no matter any amount of hardship that it may have to face. The State lost ₹ 6,000 crore for not implementing the power reforms. Altogether, the Centre stopped release of ₹ 21,000 crore.
The Centre inflicted further loss by stopping release of out of budget funds due to the State amounting to ₹ 20,000 crore. Hence, the State stood to lose ₹ 40,000 crore this year due to the regressive steps of Centre.
What was even more damaging was the Centre laying down conditions with the aim to stop funds to the State out of agreements made by the latter with various institutions for developmental programmes. However, the agencies were recently releasing the money out of confidence that they reposed on the State government due to its financial soundness. The officials swung into action to convince the agencies that the government would repay the loans after Mr. Rao got the alert about the Centre’s motive.
It was clear therefore that the Centre conspired to set up obstacles to the development of Telangana at every stage. The policies of the Centre were not regressive just to the State, but entire country. It worked against federal spirit of the country which had to be explained to people through the Assembly.
