Hyderabad, March 3 – Union Minister for Coal and Mines, G. Kishan Reddy, has urged the Congress government in Telangana to release a white paper detailing the state's financial position.
In a letter to Chief Minister Revanth Reddy, Reddy requested the release of a comprehensive white paper before the state budget session begins on March 16.
In his letter, Reddy provided details of the funds and other support received by the state from the Centre during the last 12 years.
Reddy stated that Telangana, formed in 2014, had a surplus budget. He alleged that the current financial situation is due to the mismanagement during the last 10 years of the BRS rule and the last 27 months of the Congress rule.
He argued that the state's growing debt indicates its poor financial situation. Therefore, he urged the state government to inform the people of Telangana about the state's financial situation.
Reddy recalled that during the 2023 Assembly elections, the Congress party made 420 promises to the people of Telangana, including six major guarantees through its manifesto. He said that the people who believed in these promises gave power to the Congress party, but after taking over as Chief Minister, he tried to downplay the situation by saying that the state coffers are empty.
“While you have spoken about the state treasury in this manner, recently at a meeting, you said that if necessary, you are ready to give Rs 1,000 crore to the Sonia Gandhi-Rahul Gandhi family and the Congress party. Looking at the way you talk, it is clear that the state treasury is actually empty – the pockets of Congress leaders are full.”
He claimed that since the NDA government came to power at the Centre under the leadership of Prime Minister Narendra Modi in 2014, it has been providing support and cooperation in many ways for the development of Telangana state. During the last 12 years, the Centre has allocated around Rs 12 lakh crore for the development of Telangana state and the welfare of the people through various Central government schemes, capital investments, etc., he said.
According to Kishan Reddy, these funds include Rs 2.5 lakh crore in taxes, construction of roads worth Rs 1.85 lakh crore, more than Rs 36,000 crore in railway budget allocation, another Rs 50,000 crore for railway works, about Rs 40,000 crore for employment guarantee funds, Rs 50,000 crore for free ration rice distribution, more than Rs 40,000 crore for rural and urban local bodies under recommendations of financial commissions, over Rs 12,000 crore for power projects, over Rs 14,000 crore for PM Kisan funds, Rs 80,000 crore for fertilizer subsidy, more than Rs 21,000 crore for education and sports and nearly Rs 9,000 crore for health care funds, etc.
Besides, the Central government has collected paddy from Telangana farmers by paying a minimum support price of around Rs 2 lakh crore in the last 12 years. Another Rs 60,000 crore minimum support price was paid to procure cotton from Telangana farmers. The Central government not only provided a large amount of funds for the development of Telangana, but also provided Rs 10 lakh crore in loans through various financial institutions.
In addition, the Central government launched a new scheme called 'Special Assistance to States for Capital Investment (SASCI)' in the financial year 2020-21 to provide additional support to the development of the states by providing interest-free loans with a term of 50 years to the states for capital investment funds required for building better infrastructure in the states, wrote Kishan Reddy.
Under the SASCI scheme from 2020-21 to 2025-26, Telangana was given more than Rs 10,000 crore interest-free loans. With these loans, hundreds of capital investment projects have been implemented across the state.
“Even though Telangana, like all the states, is taking advantage of this scheme, we see the state government relying on interest-free loans provided by the Central government even for the ambitious programmes taken up by the state government. This shows that the state government's financial situation is in dire straits,” he said.
“Not only this, the state government is taking loans to pay interest on loans taken in the past. It is also taking loans to pay salaries to employees, for the Rythu Bharosa scheme and for the implementation of various welfare schemes. Today we have a situation in Telangana where the state government can’t do even a single work without loans,” he added.