In his first reaction to Telangana budget 2024-25, KCR says this govt would be taken to task

KCR criticizes Telangana Budget 2024, calls it lacking vision and warns BRS will hold government accountable for failures.

Leader of the Opposition (LoP) and Bharat Rashtra Samithi (BRS) chief K Chandrasekhar Rao (KCR), who attended the Assembly for the first time after losing power in December-2023, termed the State budget as lacking vision with no clarity on any major policy.

Addressing the media after the budget presentation, KCR said the budget poured water on the aspirations of the people and warned that the BRS would take the government to task. Is there any policy on Agriculture, Industry and Information Technology?, he asked and said not a single new scheme was announced.

“We wanted to give six months to this government. Now, it is clear that they have failed to come up with any clear policy on any subject. We will take the government to task,” he warned.

KCR said the budget ruled out continuing the welfare schemes initiated by the BRS government. There is no mention of the Goats and Sheep distribution programme. There is no mention of the revolutionary scheme Dalita Bandhu that was started to change the lives of Dalits and it reflects the feudal mentality of the government, he alleged.

“The government wants to dilute the Rythu Bharosa scheme (earlier Rythu Bandhu) with several restrictions and the budget made it very clear.”

Terming the government as ‘anti-farmer’, the BRS chief said the government failed to provide water and power, and did not buy the agricultural produce also. “Farmers were praised in the speech but they were deceived in action. Terming our scheme as misappropriation of funds reflects the intentions of the Congress government,” he said. There is no clarity on help to women and all that they announced were loans and not financial assistance.

All that the Finance Minister did was repeatedly was stress the amounts while reading the allocations as if they were providing funds like never before, he said, further alleging that the presentation sounded more like storytelling than seriousness in a budget presentation. The BRS chief did not take any questions and the criticism was in his usual style laced with sarcasm and pun.