The Chief Minister lashed out at the previous government for the mismanagement of funds during the past 10 years.
Published Dec 21, 2023 | 10:38 AM ⚊ Updated Dec 21, 2023 | 10:38 AM
Chief Minister Revanth Reddy. (X)
Telangana Chief Minister A Revanth Reddy, on Wednesday, 20 December, poked fun at former minister KT Rama Rao without taking his name.
Intervening in the debate on a White Paper on the state’s finances in the Legislative Assembly, the Chief Minister said that he understood the BRS’s pain over being out of power.
“Naturally, they must be going through an agonising experience, especially since innate desires of some remain unfulfilled,” he said and taunted KTR further saying that “everyone is aware of the story of Aurangzeb. The BRS is bringing family quarrels to the House.”
The Chief Minister commented while describing how frustrated the BRS members were after losing power. “The White Paper we have tabled in the House is not to belittle anyone. We intend to apprise the people of the facts about the state’s finances. But the Opposition BRS has been saying that we have ulterior motives,” he said.
The Chief Minister lashed out at the previous government for the mismanagement of funds during the past 10 years.
“In 2014-15, the state did not have to go to the RBI for ways and means loans. In 2014-15, in 303 out of 365 days, the state did not have to go for ways and means advances (WMA) as the state’s account with RBI had surplus funds. But later, the number came down drastically so much so that the state could not pay salaries and pensions, and make payments to beneficiaries of welfare schemes,” he said.
The state’s inability to pay the employees in time led to the bouncing of their EMI cheques issued for repaying loans. It led to a drop in their CIBIL rating, making them ineligible for raising any fresh loans. “The previous government is responsible if the employees had become defaulters,” he said.
Asserting that his only interest was to develop the state, the Chief Minister said that he had taken the initiative of calling Union Minister G Kishan Reddy and asking him to fix an appointment with Prime Minister Narendra Modi so that they could request for the release of funds. “I want to have cordial relations with the Union government at the official level though as leaders of different parties, we may differ in our ideologies,” he said.
Irrigation Minister N Uttam Kumar Reddy, during the debate, slammed Harish Rao for speaking “half-truths” in the Assembly regarding the fixing of meters to agriculture pump sets.
He said that in the Bill that the Union government had brought in, there was no mention of recovering power charges from farmers as alleged by Harish Rao. “I know it for sure because I was a member of the Parliament committee that vetted the Bill,” he said.
Uttam Reddy said that there was no audit in the Civil Supplies Department for four years. The corporation has a debt of ₹58,0000 crore. The rice supplied to the poor as ration had been unfit for consumption and that it was being diverted.
Watch Live: CM Sri @Revanth_Anumula speaking in Telangana Legislative Assembly. https://t.co/UtJAYiKDEa
— Telangana CMO (@TelanganaCMO) December 20, 2023
As far as irrigation projects were concerned, lakhs of crores of rupees were spent. The BRS government spent ₹90,000 crore on irrigation and the ayacut created was just one lakh acres. “The new ayacut that has been developed under the Palamuru Rangareddy Lift Irrigation Scheme (PRLIS) is zero,” he said.
Referring to the sinking of piers of Medigadda (Lakshmi) barrage of the Kaleshwaram Project, he said it was shocking that though a disaster of such a magnitude had hit the project on 21 October, the then-chief minister K Chandrashekar Rao remained silent. The previous government did not make any inquiries or assess the damage, he said.
Earlier, at one stage, Harish Rao said that he welcomed an inquiry into the Medigadda fiasco by a sitting high court judge. “We are not afraid of the inquiry. Please order the inquiry. We want it so that the facts would be revealed,” he said.
Deputy Chief Minister Mallu Bhatti Vikramarka, who is also the Finance Minister, said that the previous BRS government had constructed only one project, Kaleshwaram, but even in its construction, it had bungled. The piers of Medigadda Barrage had sunk because of shoddy construction, he alleged.
He said the state was being forced to borrow to service the loans that the BRS government had raised. A situation has come where the state has to go in for ways and means with the RBI for its daily expenses.
He said the purpose of bringing out the White Paper was to lay the foundation for the state’s progress. It should be able to compete with other states in the country, he said.
The Finance Minister said that there was a yawning gap between estimates and actuals but it has now gone beyond 20 percent. “The dreams of the people of Telangana had remained shattered with the mismanagement of funds by the previous government,” he said.
Vikramarka said that when he and other Congress leaders wanted to visit the Kaleshwaram Project, the then government got them arrested. Even for Mission Bhagiratha, the previous government raised loans by misleading the financial institutions.
The Yellampalli project was constructed by the erstwhile Congress government but the BRS government had raked political benefit from it. Vikramarka further alleged that the Outer Ring Road, which was constructed by the erstwhile Congress government was handed over to a private company.
