An election Budget with empty promises, hollow rhetoric: Bandi Sanjay Kumar

Hyderabad: Telangana BJP chief Bandi Sanjay Kumar on Monday described the State Budget for 2023-24 presented by Finance Minister T Harish Rao as 'election-oriented with empty promises and hollow rhetoric'.

In a statement, he said the minister had confined himself to 'self-boasting and Centre-bashing. He ignored all sections of people, including SCs, STs, BCs and EBCs. "It is a big disappointment for people who expected the KCR government to implement his pre-election promises at least during the election year," he quipped.

Asserting that there is absolutely no match between what is allocated in the Budget and what is spent, the BJP leader said in the outgoing Budget, not even 50 per cent of the allocations were spent. "Now, the Finance Minister presents a huge outlay only to hoodwink people," he remarked.

Bandi pointed out that if the government had to waive crop loans up to Rs 1 lakh, it should allocate Rs 19,700 crore; but it made an allocation of only Rs 6,285 crore. About the much-hyped Dalit Bandhu, the government had not spent much on the scheme last year, though it had allocated Rs 17,700 crore.

"This year, too, the government made a similar allocation. If the scheme has to be implemented benefitting all Dalits in State, it would not be possible even in another 100 years. This is nothing but cheating the Dalit community," he observed.

Bandi said, similarly, the allocations made for STs and OBCs were meager in relation to their population. So was the case with the allocations to the education and health sectors, which would result in a heavy burden on the common man, he said.

The Karimnagar MP said the allocations for the irrigation and power sectors were not sufficient even to repay the State borrowings and salaries of employees. "For instance, the government allocated Rs 12,000 crore to the power sector, which is not enough to clear the pending dues of departments to the distribution companies, which are facing huge losses of Rs 60,000 crore," he said.

Finding fault with the government for criticising the Centre for not releasing funds, Bandi claimed that many schemes mentioned in the Budget were Central-funded. He described it as a joke the Finance Minister's promise to regularise contract employees.

"While the Budget outlay was projected at Rs 2.9 lakh crore, the government has shown revenue receipts of only Rs 1.31 lakh crore. It is shameful on the part of the government not to show how it wants to mobilise Rs 1.6 lakh crore. In fact, the Centre will be paying Rs 62,000 crore through tax devolutions and grants. And it appears the State government wants to mobilise the remaining money through sale of lands and additional borrowings," Bandi asserted.