KCR slams Centre for weakening federal fabric

Hyderabad: Issues like the Centre undermining the federal values, conspiring to weaken the states, imposing indiscriminate taxation on citizens and attempts to promote religious hatred were highlighted by Chief Minister K Chandrasekhar Rao during his address on the occasion of 76th Independence Day celebrations at the Golconda Fort on Monday.

The Chief Minister hoisted the National Flag, called upon the people to be vigilant and thwart the attempts to spread religious hatred. KCR said that states should get 41 per cent share in the taxes but the Centre was deducting 11.4 percent from it in the name of cess and was depriving the states of revenue. He said, "The Centre boasts of cooperative federalism but when it comes to the implementation, it is going for centralisation of powers. It is making a mockery of the Article 1 of the Constitution that India is a union of states and imposing decisions (from the concurrent list) on the states without consulting the latter."

The Centre tried to impose farm laws in the similar manner, he said. The Chief Minister said the state borrowings were well within the limit of FRBM Act. "A few people were ignorantly stating that the state was taking more loans. As per the figures released by the Centre for 2019-20, the total borrowings of the state were Rs 2,25,450 crore. When Telangana was formed in 2014, the state received loans of Rs 75,577 crore, which means the government took loans up to Rs 1,49,873 crore for the construction of projects and providing basic amenities, he said.

KCR criticised the Centre for imposing GST on essential commodities like milk and crematoriums which was adversely affecting the poor and middle class sections.

He said people's welfare is the responsibility of the government but the Centre was insulting them by naming them as 'freebies', which is objectionable.

The CM alleged that because of the Centre's mismanagement, the country's economic growth had slowed down, and inflation increased. "To hide its failure, the BJP-led NDA government is indulging in tactics of dividing the people with hate politics," he alleged.

KCR recalled the efforts of the founding fathers of the country, with their efforts a mutual trust and sense of unity was developed in Indian society which was vibrant with different religions, regions, languages and cultures.

The Chief Minister congratulated the athletes particularly six sportspersons from Telangana who won medals in the recently-concluded Commonwealth Games at Birmingham.