Harish Rao fires fusillade of charges against Centre

Hyderabad: State Finance minister T Harish Rao listed out the hurdles created by the Union Government for the development of the Telangana State. He alleged that even while Telangana has been achieving significant development through its own efforts, the Central government has been creating hurdles to stop the state from further growing. During the current year, based on the State's economic performance and borrowing limits, an amount of Rs 53,970 crore has been included in the Budget as borrowings which was approved by the Assembly also.

But the Central government unilaterally imposed a cut of Rs15,033 crore and reduced the borrowing limits to Rs.38,937 crore. This decision of the Centre was totally unjustified and uncalled for. "These kind of cuts are against the spirit of federalism and have eroded the rights of the States", said Rao.

Harish pointed out that the Fifteenth Finance Commission recommended a special grant of Rs 723 crore to Telangana and an amount of Rs 171 crore towards nutrition to ensure that the tax devolution should not be less than the amount of devolution received by the State in 2019-20. The Centre denied Telangana of its due share.

Under section 94(2) of the A P Reorganisation Act, the Central government shall provide funds for the development of backward areas. Though the Centre is supposed to release a grant of Rs 450 crore per annum, grants for three years amounting to Rs 1,350 crore have not been released. NITI Aayog has recommended that a grant of Rs 19,205 crore for Mission Bhagiratha and Rs 5,000 crore for Mission Kakatiya for which funds are not released yet.

Establishment of a Rail Coach Factory at Kazipet, Bayyaram Steel Plant and Girijan University have been specifically mentioned in the Reorganisation Act. These mandates have not been fulfilled even after eight and a half years. In addition, the ITIR sanctioned to Telangana has been shelved, the minister said and added that another glaring instance of discrimination to Telangana was the order issued by the Union Power Ministry in August 2022.

In this order, Telangana government has been directed to pay pending dues of TSDISCOMs amounting to Rs 3,441.78 crore as principal and Rs 3,315.14 crore as late payment surcharge, totaling to Rs 6,756.92 crore to A P Genco within 30 days. Though Telangana has been pleading the Centre government regarding dues amounting to Rs 17,828 crore payable by Andhra Pradesh to Telangana Power Utilities, the request has been ignored without any reason. Left with no option, the State government had to approach the Court of Law.

In 2014-15, the first year of the formation of the State, the Ministries of Union Government inadvertently released Rs 495 crore, the Centre's share of Centrally Sponsored Schemes to Andhra Pradesh instead of Telangana. The Centre has been ignoring requests of Telangana for redressing the injustice done either deliberately or mistakenly, the minister explained.