MIM chides govt for non-release of funds

 Hyderabad: While appreciating the State government for increasing budget for minorities, the All India Majlis-e-Ittehadul Muslimeen (AIMIM) on Monday alleged that the release of funds was not in proportion to the allocations.

MIM leader Akbaruddin Owaisi was speaking in the general discussion on budget in the Assembly. He alleged that though the State government was allocating funds to minorities, it was not releasing the funds. He pointed out that the State government did not release a single rupee additional this year when compared to the previous year. “During last year, the releases were Rs 842 crore and this year it is Rs 819.64 crore. 

Even today, Rs 200 crore is pending for release. The government should at least release Rs 100 crore and I hope the government would not leave me embarrassed,” said Akbaruddin Owaisi. The government allocated Rs 2,000 crore but there was no sufficient staff to utilise the funds as one officer was handling more than two posts, he added.

The MIM leader lashed out at the NDA government on its economic policies. He alleged that the NDA government had step-motherly attitude towards both Telangana and Andhra Pradesh. He said the Telangana government had estimated that the Centre would provide Rs 1,29,069 crore as part of Central schemes, but it had given Rs 84,560 crore only. Going by the trend, the State was unlikely to get bonanza from the Central government, he said. He further alleged that the NDA government had failed to fulfil the assurances in the A P Reorganisation Act.

The MIM leader said demonetisation and GST had hampered the growth of the State. “We had said, these were wrong steps within minutes of these decisions and it took one year for the TRS government to understand that these were wrong steps,” said Akbaruddin Owaisi.

The MIM leader reiterated the demand to provide a package of Rs 5,000 crore to the Old City for development. He said that 70 per cent of the revenues were from Hyderabad but the allocations to the city had been substantially less. He asked when the projects like Musi beautification, MMTS Phase-II, Metro, TRAM would complete.  He wanted the government to fill 1.5 lakh vacancies in the government. “You have promised filling up of 1 lakh vacancies. People expected ‘ache din’... Naa Modi Sahab Naukriyan de rahe hai aur na aap’ (neither PM Modi is giving jobs nor you). Fill up 1.5 lakh vacancies,” he said. 

The MIM leader wanted the government to call a meeting to take up the issues of NRIs, hawkers in the Old City, checking irregularities in the Waqf Board, implementation of Urdu as second language among others. AKbaruddin sought the government to return the money given by MLAs for land. “The government collected Rs 10 lakh from each MLA in 2008. It has been ten years and neither we got the land nor our money back. Allot land or give back our money,” he said.