Telangana Government needs to dig deep into pockets for Dalit Bandhu scheme

Hyderabad: Chief Minister K Chandrasekhar Rao, who appeared to be in an aggressive mood on Monday during his public meeting, said that the opposition parties were feeling nervous ever since the government had announced the Dalit Bandhu scheme. They are making all kinds of demands asking the government to make clear who all will get it by when and so on.

"Why not, the Government will give a befitting reply to all their questions. The scheme has been devised after careful thought," he said. According to him, the government has so far released Rs 500 crore to launch the scheme and it would require another Rs 1,600 crore to cover all families in the Huzurabad Assembly constituency. But on the other hand, officials of the state Finance department said the government was struggling hard for the money and has no clue how to fulfil the financial needs in September and October.

The implementation of the new PRC to the government employees and extending Aasara pension scheme to 57-year-old had put additional burden of Rs 400 crore which needs to be disbursed in September in addition to Rs 1,600 crore for Dalit Bandhu in Huzurabad.

Another big challenge before the government is the implementation of the farm waiver loans up to Rs 50,000 from Monday. The farm waiver scheme alone requires Rs 2,000 crore.

The officials said that Telangana was already relying on borrowings from the financial institutions mainly RBI to overcome the fiscal crisis.

The government was borrowing at least Rs 2,000 crore every month to pay salaries, pensions and other revenue expenditure.

The Dalit Bandhu and other decisions like pension for old and farm loans etc would put an additional burden of Rs 1,000 crore per month

Telangana's borrowing limit is not more than Rs 40,000 crore. Rs 14,000 crore were already borrowed from RBI in the first quarter of the current financial year.

"Seeking more borrowings every month would also put heavy burden in the form of paying interests and principal amount," officials feel.

However, they add that the government was expecting a big jump in the revenues after the increase of market value of lands and the enhancement of stamp duty from September. The Finance department has asked the Stamps and Registration department to ensure Rs 1,000 crore revenue per month from the property registration to meet the financial requirement.

If the target is not achieved, the only option before the government is to increase the borrowings to Rs 3,000 crore from the RBI every month. "First big challenge is to provide Rs 1,600 crore for Dalit Bandhu in Huzurabad in a 60 days' time.

The identification of beneficiaries is almost completed as 21,000 families will get Rs 10 lakh each by September end," officials said.