CAG pricked bubble of KCR’s tall claims: Opposition

​Hyderabad: The Opposition Congress and BJP have slammed the TRS government for the irregularities in keeping of accounts of the state finances for the year 2016-17 as pointed by Comptroller and Auditor General (CAG) who submitted his report to the Assembly on Thursday. Telangana Congress spokesperson Dasoju Sravan demanded resignation of Chief Minister K Chandrasekhara Rao for the irregularities in the keeping of accounts. 

Speaking to the media persons, he said that the Chief Minister and his cabinet colleagues should be arrested for false accounts and government should convene a meeting of the Assembly to discuss the report of the Comptroller and Auditor General. 

Referring to the report of the CAG, he said that the government has shown inflated figures of the revenue and said that the findings of the CAG were a slap in the face of the government.  The report has exposed the lies of the government on revenue surplus as it was shown as Rs 5,392 crore though the actual deficit was Rs 1,386 crore for the financial year 2016-17.

The government was also cheating the banks by borrowing more than the Fiscal Responsibility and Budget Management limits. This episode reminds the case of erstwhile Satyam Computers owner Ramalinga Raju’s case. 

Meanwhile, BJP state president Dr. K Laxman said that the latest CAG report laid before the recently concluded budget session of the State Assembly vindicates the stand of the party that the four-year TRS rule in Telangana has been riddled with financial irregularities, misleading claims, and false promises.
Addressing media-persons here, he said that the CAG had put it in black and white TRS government had no rules and was steeped in corruption. 

Claiming the CAG had pricked the bubble of the tall claims of Chief Minister K Chandrasekhar Rao and his government that the state has revenue surplus. But, it had shown thousands of crores provided by the Centre to save Discoms under the revenue head. Even after setting aside the funds given to the Discoms, still, the fiscal deficit vis-a-vis state’s GDP stands at 4.3 per cent, as against the FRBM limit of 3.5 per cent, he said. 

The CAG said the state budget is not more than number game with fudged figures to showcase and paint a rosy picture to mislead people, he said.  The Chief Minister has been going to town trumpeting that the Telangana is a rich state. However, the CAG report had exposed vindicating the party’s stand that the state has been pushed into the debt trap. 

It was to avoid members raising questions on the basis of CAG observations that the state government had deviated from the precedent of introducing the Appropriating of Accounts along with CAG report in the State Assembly. Instead, the CAG report was circulated along with Panchayat Raj and Municipality bills on the last day of the Assembly, he said. “The CAG report is a slap on the face of the Chief Minister who claimed to introduce several schemes to attract votes,” he said.