NAVEENA GHANATE
The Telangana Assembly will meet in the second week of February. Official sources said that a Vote-on Account Budget will be introduced in the Assembly.
As the Centre is planning to introduce a Vote-on-Account budget, the TS government is planning to introduce the budget after assessing the amount of funds that the state would get from the Centre.
Budget meetings would last around six days. The Telangana government reportedly wants to introduce its budget according to allocations the Centre gives as grants and for social
welfare schemes to the state after the introduction of the full Central budget.
Ministers and senior officials are reviewing the functioning of their departments led by Deputy CM Mallu Bhatti Vikramarka and the budget proposals for them. The budget proposals for departments supervised by Chief Minister Revanth Reddy have not been
reviewed so far.
Officials were asked to include the exact figures of Central grants in the upcoming budget, but this is possible only after the Centre presents its full budget.
During the 2019 Lok Sabha elections the BRS government presented a Vote-on-Account
budget in February 2019 and later presented a comprehensive budget in September 2019.
The model election code is likely to come into force in February. So it is not possible to introduce a full-scale budget at present.
It is known that of the six guarantees given by the Congress during the election campaign, free bus travel facilities for women and the increase in Arogya Sri cover to Rs 10 lakh have been implemented. Officials said that the other guarantees may be implemented after the elections.
Funds should be provided and rules and guidelines should be formulated before implementing them.
