KCR for Assembly session in December :TRS to blast Centre’s bias against TS

NAVEENA GHANATE
Hyderabad

Chief Minister K. Chandrasekhar Rao has decided to hold a session of the State Legislative Assembly for a week in December to apprise people about the discriminatory financial policies of the Centre against Telangana.

KCR directed Finance Minister Harish Rao and Legislative Affairs Minister Prashant Reddy to take steps regarding this.“The unjustifiable sanctions imposed by the Centre on Telangana has resulted in the income of the state declining by around Rs 40,000 crore in fiscal 2022- 2023. The Centre is preventing Telangana from moving forward in the path of development. The Centre’s ludicrous economic policies have become a stumbling block in the growth of all states,” the CMO statement said.

As the Monsoon session was not prorogued the Governor’s address is not required in this session.All States prepare budgets by taking into consideration budget figures released by the Centre before every financial year. As a regular practice, the Centre announces the FRBM limit for each state. The Centre announced the FRBM limit for Telangana as Rs 54,000 crore at the beginning of fiscal 2022-23. Following this, Telangana prepared its budget outlay. But the Centre suddenly reduced Telangana’s FRBM limit to Rs 39,000 crore. The CMO said that due to this Telangana lost Rs 15,000 crore.

Apart from this, financially strong states are entitled to avail of 0.5 per cent additional fund mobilization from the FRBM limit. Telangana, which is registering robust growth, was denied the 0.5 per cent additional loan facility as it refused to enforce electricity reforms which were against the interests of farmers.  

Chief Minister K. Chandrasekhar Rao has already made it clear to the Centre that Telangana is ready to bear any hardships but will not accept the Centre’s power sector reforms as that will harm Telangana’s farmers as well as its agriculture sector.

As a result, the state lost about Rs 6,000 crore. This means that Telangana lost around Rs 21,000 crore (Rs 15,000 crore through the reduction in the FRBM limit and Rs 6,000 crore through additional mobilization).

The Centre also blocked the release of Rs 20,000 crore in non-budgetary funds to TS. The Telangana government is of the opinion that the state did not get nearly Rs 40,000 crore due to the Centre’s policies.“What is even worse is that the state government was mobilizing funds for the development of Telangana as per agreements signed with financial institutions earlier. The Centre blocked these funds by imposing impractical conditions,” the CMO said.

The CM said that at every step the Centre is blocking Telangana’s development by imposing restrictions.“It is clear that the Centre is conspiring to dilute Telangana’s development effort as the state has set an example for the country with its outstanding progress,” the CMO said.“Every year, states prepare development plans (pragati paddu) as per their expectations. Due to the Centre’s inappropriate decisions and the delay in releasing funds, the development of states has been blocked.

The Centre’s wrong policies will be detrimental to the country’s development,” the CMO said.The CMO statement said the irrational decisions of the Centre are not only blocking the progress of Telangana but also that of the country. The Centre is undermining federalism by throttling states with its vindictive degenerate policies.

The Telangana Government wants to bring to the attention of the state’s people and the country the Centre’s irrelevant decisions. So it decided to hold an Assembly session in December to enlighten people through the Assembly.