Budget? Wait! We want to fulfil all promises made

Interview of the Week

The new State of Telangana is grappling with several problems. Some we have inherited from the previous governments and some are on account of lack of proper help from the Centre. We feel that the Centre which should have come to the rescue of the infant state has not been bestowing the kind of attention it should have whether it be in terms of devolution of funds or supplying power to help the state overcome the power crisis which is the result of neglect by the Andhra rulers. All these issues have forced the government to even postpone holding of the budget session. But one thing I can tell you we are committed to the promises we have made to the people of Telangana and we will fulfil them at any cost, said the Finance Minister of Telangana State, Etela Rajender, in an exclusive interview to
C Ananda Kumara Reddy. Excerpts

In a new state problems are bound to be there that even your party knew before it came to power. While the truncated AP government succeeded in presenting its budget the TS government could not do so. What is the reason?
We are now ready to complete the Constitutional process and most probably the session would begin anytime after October 20. The main reason for the delay is we had to sort out many issues as unfortunately the Central Government had not been helping us as per the provisions in the AP Reorganisation Act-2014. We hope wisdom would dawn on the Centre and things would be set right soon. It took over three months for us to settle down and now we are ready for take off and you will see how the government would move forward. We will be holding the TRS plenary on October 18 and 19 and soon after that we will have the budget session.

You say that the Centre is not supporting you and that you are not getting adequate help. What sort of help the TRS Government had sought from the Centre so far over the last four months? And what is the response you have got?
We have made it clear to the Centre on more than one occasion that we should not be discriminated against and all the funds and incentives that would be given by the Centre to Andhra Pradesh, should be given to Telangana as well. We are demanding this only because the two states that were formed after bifurcation must be treated equally by the Centre.

Union Power minister Piyush Goel is on record that the Telangana Government had not sent any proposal or request on setting up of new power plants. When no proposals have been sent, how do you expect the Centre to come to your rescue?
I disagree with this contention. Chief Minister K Chandrasekhar Rao has already made several requests during his visits to New Delhi and had sought help. The power shortage faced by Telangana is the making of the TDP chief, Chandrababu Naidu. He has denied our share of allocation of 380 MW from Krishnapatnam project, Naidu is playing dirty politics with the people of Telangana. He is provoking TDP leaders to attack us. Naidu is also responsible for under-production in VTPS and RTPS. They are deliberate acts to create trouble for Telangana. But we know how to fight it out.

What will be the size of your budget and which sectors will get top priority in the first budget of TRS government.
The size of the budget I cannot disclose now but we have made several promises to the people before the elections and hence it is our responsibility to ensure that the budget is prepared in such a manner that the aspirations of the people are fulfilled. The people of Telangana have reposed faith in KCR and have reposed hopes on us. Come what may we will have to live up to their expectations. Hence welfare will be our top priority.We have already announced various welfare schemes. Not many people know that the pension schemes meant for old people and the handicapped have already been started. Similarly there are two other sectors -- power and irrigation -- which have suffered serious setback during the last six decades. So we will lay greater focus on these two sectors as well. Education is yet another area where we had made many promises like free education from KG to PG and announced schemes like FAST. We will find resources to fund such schemes. Another area of prime importance is food security.

You seem to have set high targets but what was the revenue inflow during the last four months since the TRS Government came to power.
Fortunately for us the revenue receipts have been completely on expected lines. I don’t see any problem arising out of net revenue inflows by the time the Budget 2014-15 is presented in the state Assembly. At the most, I anticipate a shortfall of Rs 100 crore than what we had anticipated.

How will you decide the criteria to allocate funds to each department and to what extent will TRS manifesto reflect in your budget.
Let me make one thing clear. As far as the government is concerned the party manifesto is like the Bhagvad Gita. Chief Minister K Chandrasekhar Rao has stated this on many occasions. He has also told us the same thing and hence it is but natural that the budget will certainly reflect the promises made in the manifesto. ‘Mana Vuru- Mana Pranalika’ and ‘Mana Rashtram (Our village, Our planning and Our State) is the basis for formulating the budget. We will get the feedback from the TRS plenary and will incorporate those suggestions also. Agriculture and Irrigation will be among the sectors which will get top priority.

It is said that the Telangana Finance minister has been sidelined in the process of preparation of the Budget. Do you agree with that. Why did the CM constitute a task force consisting of officials to prepare the budget. The committee, it is said, is reporting to the CM and not to you. In such a scenario what is the role of Etela in the Budget preparation?
Let me make it clear that it is wrong to presume that Etela the Finance Minister has no role in the preparation of the budget. As Finance minister, it will be my job to plan and allocate funds to different sectors. Yes, a task force has been constituted and its role is to guide the government in ensuring that we present a best budget. There is nothing wrong in it.

Have these committees submittied their reports?
The task force committees are in the process of giving final touches to the proposals. I think Irrigation and some other department reports have been finalised. Just wait for a few more days and you yourself will say that we have presented a most comprehensive and very good budget. We will prove our critics wrong.