Hyderabad: New government mulls white paper on State finances

Hyderabad : The first Cabinet meeting of the newly formed Congress government on Thursday decided to present a white paper on the state finances between 2014 and December 7, 2023. The white paper would give details of where and how much money was spent and to what extent it was helpful for the welfare of the people and development of the state. It would be a proper status report, said new minister D Sridhar Babu, who briefed the media after the Cabinet meeting.

Babu said the Cabinet had decided to hold a brief session of the State Assembly from December 9 to enable the 119 newly elected MLAs to take oath. Soon after that, the Assembly will elect a new Speaker. It may be mentioned here that the Congress high command had decided on the name of G Prasada Rao as the Congress candidate for the Speaker’s post.

The minister said the Cabinet which gave its approval for the Six Guarantees had decided to implement two of them from December 9, which happens to be the birthday of Sonia Gandhi and also the day when the announcement regarding the Centre’s decision to carve a separate state of Telangana was made. The two guarantees to be announced with immediate effect are free travel for women by RTC buses and increasing the insurance amount under Aarogyasri to Rs 10 lakh.

The minister said all the Six Guarantees would be implemented within the next 100 days. He said the Chief Minister would be holding a detailed discussion with the officials from December 9 and would also be holding a high-level review on the power supply.

In fact, the Chief Minister expressed his displeasure over the Principal Secretary of the Energy department when he did not “properly respond,” to the queries raised by him. He is learnt to have told the Principal Secretary that he should come with full facts and should not hide anything during the review meeting slated for Friday. The officials told the Chief Minister that there was a debt of Rs 85,000 crore on the Electricity department.

Sources said that the Chief Minister also asked the officials not to accept the resignation of TRANSCO CMD Prabhakar Rao. He said he wants Rao to be present in the meeting so that there can be a thorough review of the department. He said the government was committed to ensure 24-hour uninterrupted power supply to all -- domestic, agriculture and industry.

The minister further said that a detailed discussion had taken place in the Cabinet on how the previous government had taken decisions without planning. He also said that henceforth the houses which consume less than 200 units of power will not get power bills.

Replying to a question, the minister said the district ministers would enumerate the crop loss due to the recent rains following Michaung cyclone. Regarding the loan waiver of farmers which has been pending, the minister said the government would take a decision after studying the financial situation of the state.