Telangana filling Central coffer with 50K cr annually: KCR

​Hyderabad: Chief Minister K Chandrashekar Rao on Tuesday said Telangana was one among seven States running the country by contributing more than Rs 50,000 crore annually. The State had surpassed the national average in terms of per capita income, gross state domestic produce etc., he added.

Responding to the discussion on Appropriation Bill, Chief Minister said Telangana contributes more than Rs 50,000 crore to Centre but gets only Rs 24,000 crore in return. He said the broad fiscal policy lies with the Government of India. “Telangana cannot be different, it has to be like the Centre. The fiscal deficit can be more than 3.5 per cent. We have taken Centre’s burden including Rs 11,000 crore for DISCOMS under Uday scheme,” he said.

The Chief Minister said the GSDP of Telangana was more than the GDP of the country. When the State was formed, the GSDP of the State was 12.4 and the national GDP was 13 per cent. During 2017-18 the GSDP of Telangana was 14.81 per cent and the GDP of the country was 9.8 per cent. The average per capita income of the country is Rs 1,12,744 whereas the average per capita income of the State is Rs 1,75,534. The industrial growth, which was minus 0.8 per cent before Telangana was formed, was now 5.6 per cent during 2017-18.

The Chief Minister said the State was the most employee friendly government in the country. He said the government would repay the PRC dues in any number of instalments. Even though there was a burden of Rs 1,100 crore annually, government agreed to the demands of the employees to pay them, he added. 

Regarding the contributory pension scheme, Chief Minister K Chandrashekar Rao said it was not in the hands of the Telangana government but under the purview of Centre. He said the government would fill up the vacant posts and questioned the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) leaders on how many posts were filled by the Modi government, which promised two crore jobs. 

The Chief Minister said the farmer suicides in Telangana had decreased. As per the Centre, the farmer suicides in Telangana decreased by 52 per cent whereas it had increased in Maharashtra, he said.

The Chief Minister reiterated that Karimnagar would definitely become London. He said the Lower Manair Dam being constructed as part of the Kaleshwaram project will have Godavari River pass through 90 kms from the town just like Thames River in London. Government allocated Rs 500 crore as tourism package and once all these are materialised, Karimnagar would become like London with skyscrapers across the river, he said. Government did not promise to make Warangal as Singapore, he said and asked the Opposition leaders not make sarcastic comments. 

The Chief Minister said Telangana Rashtra Samithi (TRS) never said lands would be given to all Dalits. Three acres were promised to those families who are eligible and involve in agricultural activities. If there is one acre with the family, government would give 2 acres and not three more acres, he said. About 5,000 families have got benefited from the scheme, he added.

Reacting to BJP leader G Kishan Reddy’s comments that the government was spending only on the schemes which get votes, the Chief Minister said this is what the real meaning of democracy was. Political parties in other words means attracting votes, if they do not attract then there is no meaning and more they attract more are the chances of winning, he added.

The Chief Minister said the government kept the financial plan before people one year before elections. “It is a political game for other parties but for TRS it is a task. Once the task of TRS was to get Telangana and now development is the task and bypoll results are testimony for that,” said Chandrashekar Rao. Telangana was number one in many aspects and there were no corruption allegations against the government, he added.

The Chief Minister said that he was against the idea of separate country for South India. “The Finance Ministers’ meeting of South was against the national integration. I do not support such thing. There should be qualitative changes in the lives of the people if the country needs to be good,” Chief Minister Chandrashekar Rao said.