Hyderabad: Harish, Bhatti trade barbs in Assembly

Hyderabad: Heated exchanges between the Congress and TRS members were witnessed in the Assembly on Thursday during the general discussion on the State budget.

Finance minister T Harish Rao and leader of Congress Legislature Party in Assembly Mallu Bhatti Vikramarka have traded the barbs. Members of the ruling and opposition parties shouted at each other.

The debate between Harish and Vikramarka has seen the intervention of Legislative Affairs minister V Prashanth Reddy. The opposition party leader has blamed the Speaker for not giving opportunity to speak.

During his reply to the general discussion on the budget Finance Minister Harish Rao blamed the Congress for making false allegations against the government.

He said that when Congress was in power during the combined State period it never bothered about well-being of Telangana.

He refuted the allegations of the Congress that TRS did not give input subsidy to the farmers who suffered crop losses due to Nilam Cyclone.

He alleged that the then Chief Minister N Kiran Kumar Reddy has given subsidy to two Andhra districts and ignored Khammam and Warangal of Telangana. He said that the TRS has given Rs 400 crore of input subsidy to the farmers of Telangana after it formed the government in the State.

Harish categorically refuted the allegations that the State government has reduced the allocations to the scholarship programmes to the SC, ST, BC and minority students.

He said that the funds to the SCs Special Development Fund and STs Special Development Funds have been raised substantially and allocations were reduced to scholarship programmes.

He has listed the growth being achieved by Telangana in various fields and said that some of the schemes of the state have been emulated by the Centre. Several survey agencies have given top rank to Telangana.

He said that more funds to the State have been given than during the combined state period. While the capital expenditure in entire AP was Rs 1.10 lakh crore from 2004 to 2014, the TRS has spent Rs 2 lakh crore for the same in the past five years.

During the combined State period about Rs 1.40 lakh crore have been spent in Irrigation whereas Telangana has spent Rs 1.20 lakh crore in the past five years.

He said that the paddy production in Telangana has gone up to 2.23 crore tonnes in this year and the cropping area has doubled. The peak power consumption in the State gone up to 13,168 MW which was more than the one recorded in combined State.

Refuting the allegations that the State has been borrowing huge sums, he said that they were within the FRBM limits. He said that about 19 States have borrowed more than FRBM limit of 25 per cent of GSDP.

He said that the non-tax revenue would be realised through improving the efficiency of the governance. He said that a new policy would be brought to improve mining and lands would be sold to raise income.

In his speech Congress leader Bhatti Vikramarka said that the government did not order any inquiry into the scam in sale of subsidy maize. He alleged that the funds to several schemes have been cut drastically.

He made it clear that the projects which have been filled with water in this year have been constructed by the Congress.

He said that about 54 lakh students who were out of the residential schools were not provided with any assistance.

Earlier Congress legislator D Sridhar Babu, BJP member Raja Singh and TRS member G Balaraju spoke on the budget.