It’s banavati budget: Kishan

​Hyderabad: BJP floor leader G Kishan Reddy described the budget presented by Finance Minister Eatala Rajender for the year 2017-18 as a ‘banavati’ (made up) budget and not a ‘Bangaru’ (golden) budget as was being claimed by the TRS party.

He said it lacked sanctity and it would not fulfill the promise made by the TRS in its manifesto. Presenting statistics and official figures on various issues, Kishan Reddy claimed that the TRS government did not fulfill any major promise it had made to the people. He even offered to resign as MLA if he was proved wrong.

Initiating a debate on the state budget for 2017-18 in the Legislative Assembly on Wednesday, Kishan Reddy disputed the government's claim in the budget speech on increase in salaries of Home Guards. He said Home Guards salary was hiked to Rs 9,000 before the state was bifurcated but the budget documents claimed that the government had hiked their salary from Rs 6,000 to Rs 9,000 and then to Rs 12,000.

As against the sanction of 2.6 lakh 2-BHK houses, the government constructed less than 2,000 houses during the first half of its tenure, he said. Alleging that the Electricity Department was collecting surcharge from farmers, he said that power connects were being cut for non-payments.

He also said that there was nothing new in becoming the State surplus in power as the entire country has become surplus. He said Prime Minister Narendra Modi government was offering power to each and every state on demand at Rs 2.14 per unit.

The BJP leader said that the TRS government has been creating hype by making huge allocations in the budget since 2014-15. However, he said that the actual spending has not been more than 60-68 per cent. He alleged that the government was projecting surplus budget only to get more loans from the money-lending agencies.

He said that the state's debts have increased from Rs 61,000 crore to Rs 1.14 lakh crore during the last two-and-a-half years. He said that every citizen of Telangana has a debt burden of Rs 48,000. Kishan Reddy also presented a set of documents alleging irregularities in the allotment of tenders under the Palamuru Lift Irrigation Scheme. He demanded that the government place the entire records before the Speaker.

On KG-to-PG scheme, he said that there was neither KG nor PG, but the government was opening some residential schools for a few classes from 5th standard to 8th standard. He also pointed out that of 56 departments in Osmania University, there were no professors in 42 departments, there are no Associate Professors in 27 departments and there are no basic facilities such as toilets for the students. He said if the condition of Osmania University was worse, one could imagine the status of other universities in the state.

The BJP leader said that the government has not fulfilled a single promise during the last three years. However, it was giving false hopes and making more false promises every day. Stating that the Finance Minister's projection of Rs 68,000 crore revenue was far from reality, he said that the State, at the most, would not get more than Rs 46,000 crore and the budget of Rs 1.49 lakh crore would prove to be a damp squib. He further said that the sheep rearing scheme which the government had announced was a central scheme but the government was claiming it to be its own scheme.

Intervening, the Finance Minister defended the Government decision to take huge loans for various project and schemes. He said it was inevitable to take loans but then they are as per the guidelines prescribed under FRBM Act.