Budget is illusionary and directionless, says Uttam

No mention of crop loan waiver, says the senior Congress leader

Congress Lok Sabha member N. Uttam Kumar Reddy described the Budget presented by Finance Minister T. Harish Rao in the Assembly on Monday as ‘illusionary’ and ‘directionless’.

Mr. Uttam Kumar Reddy said that the proposed expenditure of ₹2.90 lakh crore is completely unrealistic as this does not match the State’s revenues. “Apparently for the first time in history, the Finance Minister’s speech had no mention of estimated revenues. He did not specify whether the Budget was surplus or deficit,” he said.

The Congress MP said that there was no uniformity in the allocation of funds, all major sectors remained neglected. “Allocation out of the total budget for the Health Department was only 4.18%.. Similarly, Secondary Education got just 5.54% while Higher Education got just 1.03%. The State government did not make any provision to clear the pending fee reimbursement and scholarship dues of over ₹3,200 crore and a meagre ₹3,001 crore have been allocated for the entire Higher Education Department. There was no mention of the monthly unemployment allowance of ₹3,016,” said Mr. Reddy. Stating that only ₹17,700 crore was allocated for the Dalit Bandhu scheme, he said there are nearly 17 lakh poor Dalit families in Telangana and this budget could not cover even 10% of those beneficiaries.

He said that the Finance Minister did not mention anything about the waiver of crop loans. “The Chief Minister promised a farm loan waiver of up to ₹1 lakh to Telangana farmers on December 2, 2018. However, crop loans up to ₹35,000 have been cleared in the last four years. This is the last budget of the BRS government and it failed to honour these promises. The Congress demanded ₹20,000 crore for the completion of ₹1 lakh loan waiver of all farmers of Telangana as more than 20 lakh farmers and their families are still waiting for it,” he said.