Jagan talks like ‘tutored parrot’: Yanamala

• Leader of the Opposition is not aware of difference between planned and non-planned components in the budget
• All the figures in the present budget are of those approved by previous govt in Vote-on-Account budget
• Farm loan waiver scheme will be implemented even if RBI disapproves of it

Hyderabad: Andhra Pradesh Finance Minister Yanamala Ramakrishnudu on Wednesday expressed regret over "unnecessary ruckus" in the House, instead of having a healthy debate on the budget proposals.

Replying to the discussion on the budget, Ramakrishnudu blamed the main Opposition party for happenings in the Assembly.

He said it appeared that the Leader of Opposition Y S Jaganmohan Reddy was not aware of the difference between the planned and non-planned component of the budget proposals. He said the charges made by Jagan Mohan Reddy on the budget proposals were more like from a “tutored parrot” and not those of a matured and experienced leader.

Admitting several constraints on resources front, he said that the budget proposals reflected the demands made by different departments and fine-tuning made within the framework of available resources.

Ramakrishnudu said allocations were being made on the basis of priority and all the flagship schemes of the government would be taken care under the planned and non-planned components.

The government in certain cases had made token allocations for certain schemes. This would give the government the room to pump in funds for that scheme at a later stage and, if necessary the government can even come up with supplementary demands for grants. Without knowing this basic fact, the Leader of the Opposition was trying to gain political mileage by "misleading" the House that the government had allocated on Rs 7000 crore in the budget for loan waiver scheme.

Explaining the revenues and the budget expenditure, the Minister said revenue figures were those approved in the Vote on Account Budget passed by the earlier Congress government. Jagan should also understand that this was the first budget of the residual State. The government was committed to implement loan waiver whether RBI agreed for rescheduling loans or not, he said.

He said once in every five years the State has been reeling under drought conditions which last for two years. That was why the government was coming up with a policy for drought proofing. Alleging that the Congress regime had caused loss of nearly two lakh jobs due to the closure of 63,000 small and medium enterprises (SMEs) in the State and two lakh jobs in the government sector were left unfilled, the Minister promised to fill one lakh government jobs immediately. He said the government was also examining the issue of regularisation of contractual employees.