Harish writes to Nirmala Sitharaman seeking CSS funds to Telangana

Hyderabad: Telangana Finance Minister T Harish Rao on Sunday wrote a letter to Union Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman asking Centre to transfer Rs 495 cr CSS funds which were wrongly transferred to Andhra Pradesh.

He recalled that Telangana State government had written several letters but so far Centre has not responded on it.

Last year in June, the state government released details of how the Centre has been giving a step-motherly treatment to the state by not releasing funds which were due to it. According to the official data, the Centre owes Rs 34,149 crore as grant dues to Telangana.

According to Finance Minister T Harish Rao, the Centre not only imposed restrictions on the state from seeking borrowings from financial institutions and was not giving any credence to the explanation given by the state government on the objections raised by the Centre on borrowings. The Centre had denied a total of Rs 817. 61 crore grants recommended by the 15th Finance Commission to the Rural and Urban Local Bodies which were also accepted by the Union government, the minister said.

The document released by him revealed that the urban local bodies alone were entitled for Rs 502.29 crore grants. As per the AP Reorganisation Act, the Centre would have to release Rs 1,350 crore grants for the development of backward regions for five financial years from 2019-2020 to 2022-2023. The 15th Finance Commission recommendation of a special grant of Rs 723 crore as tax devolution for 2020-2021 financial year was also pending, the report said. The grants Rs 171 crore (Nutrition), Rs 3,024 crore sector specific grants and Rs 2,350 crore state specific grants recommended by the 15th Finance Commission for the maintenance of Mission Bhagiratha were also not accepted till the date, Harish Rao said.

The recommendation of Niti Aayog to sanction Rs 19,205 crore for Mission Bhagiratha and Rs 5,000 crore to Mission Kakatiya was still on paper. The Centre's share of CSS (Centrally-Sponsored Scheme) amounting to Rs 495 crore in the first year of the formation of Telangana was released to Andhra Pradesh and it is yet to be restored. Harish said another Rs 1,013 crore grants for rural and urban bodies for 2021-2022 was also pending. Harish came down heavily on Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Union Home Minister Amit Shah for not releasing the grants. He alleged that the PM and Amit Shah visited Telangana and did not speak about the release of the grants to the state. The Centre ignored the Finance Commission's recommendations and deprived the state of funds to continue the development programmes in villages and municipalities, he added.