cinema

Mixed response to Telangana state budget

K M Dayashankar

Congress hails budget as people-friendly, the opposition terms it visionless and anti-people

KARIMNAGAR, JULY 25, 2O24:  There was mixed reaction to the budget presented by Deputy Chief Minister and Finance Minister Mallu Batti Vikramarka in the Legislative Assembly on Thursday. With the Congress party hailing the budget as people-friendly with a vision, the opposition criticising it as ‘anti-people’.

Congress party Karimnagar Parliament constituency incharge Velichala Rajender Rao termed it as farmer-friendly budget by allocating huge funds to the farm sector. Stating that the farmers are the backbone of the country, he said the Congress government under the leadership of Chief Minister A Revanth Reddy had accorded top priority for the farm sector and taking all measures to make farmer as a king.

Hailing the government for the allocation of a whopping Rs 72,658 crore for the farm sector, he said that the government had allocated Rs 2418 crore for Gruhajyothi scheme to provide free power to the households consuming below 200 units of power.

Stating that the BRS government had made debts to the tune of Rs 6.71 lakh crore during their regime, he reminded that the Congress government had paid interests of Rs 42,892 crore for the debts made by the BRS government. He also hailed the allocation of Rs 29,816 crore for panchayat raj, Rs 10,000 crore for Hyderabad city development, Rs 9,200 crore for BC welfare, Rs 3003 crore for Minorities welfare and Rs 723 crore for LPG gas subsidy to provide cylinder at Rs 500 for the consumers.

On the other hand, TDP official spokesperson Damera Satyam has alleged the Telangana state budget has dampened the spirits of the people of the state as it neglected all sectors without any vision. Alleging that the government had neglected Rythu Bharosa scheme, he alleged that there was no mention of agricultural labourers in the budget. The government had neglected the Dalits in the budget, he charged and added that there was no mention of the welfare of Gulf immigrants in the budget.

BJP senior leader P Sugunakar Rao alleged that the budget was visionless. He said that there was no mention of creation of new employment, welfare of all sections of society and increasing revenues to the state exchequer. He charged that the budget even failed to fulfil the promises made to the people during the elections.