Telangana wasting money unnecessarily: FGG

The Telangana government is spending its funds on unnecessary items leading to a sudden raise in non-plan expenditure, claimed Rao Chelikani, vice president of Forum for Good Governance (FGG).

“The government has been stating that Telangana State has sufficient funds but the government has already borrowed loans worth Rs 61,000 crore so far,” stated Padmanabha Reddy, secretary, FGG.

The FGG study states that these loans have been obtained through sale of bonds in the market (Rs 33,000cr), from Rural Electrification Corporation (Rs 24,000cr) and from Power Finance Corporation (Rs 4,000cr).

“In addition to this, the government has approached the World Bank for a loan for which the negotiations are underway. It is expected that about Rs 10,000 crore would be taken from the bank at an interest of 3.3 per cent,” Padmanabha Reddy explained.

“In this way, the government has exhausted the permitted limit of borrowing. But it wants to borrow more and for this purpose, the chief minister has asked the vice chairman of NITI Ayog to relax the borrowing limit,” he added.

Redappa Reddy, Retd. High Court Judge, felt, “Taxes paid by the public and revenues generated from other sources are being allocated for non plan expenditures leaving nothing for infrastructure and power projects. This is forcing the government to go for loans at a huge cost.”

“People have to be taken into confidence and should be informed of the loans being obtained by the government and the mode of payment of annual interest and principal amount,” said Rao Chelikani.

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