Hyderabad, February 6: Former Minister & ex-Leader of Opposition in Telangana Legislative Council Mohammed Ali Shabbir said that the Telangana Budget 2023-24 presented by Finance Minister T. Harish Rao in Assembly on Monday has disappointed all the sections of the society.
He said people had a lot of expectations as this was the last budget to be presented by KCR Govt before the next Assembly elections. However, he said Chief Minister K. Chandrashekhar Rao disappointed all the sections of the society by not making sufficient allocations for core sectors like education, Health or Welfare.
Shabbir Ali said there was no major increase in the budget for the Health and Education sectors as they got only 5-6% of the total allocation. Further, he said that Scheduled Castes, Scheduled Tribes, Backward Classes and Minorities welfare remained neglected in the budget. While SCs got only 7.23% of the total budget, the STs got just 1.3%, BCs got only 2.14% and the Minorities Welfare got just 0.75% of the total budget. He said these allocations were not at all sufficient to implement the major schemes for their welfare.
The Congress leader said that the budget allocation and the spending for the welfare of any community get assessed based on the percentage and not the amount. However, he said Harish Rao tried to ridicule the minority communities by stating that the State Govt had spent Rs. 8,581 crores from June 2014 to January 2023. He said Harish Rao should’ve also stated where this figure stands if we take the entire spending done by the Telangana Govt on all sectors, especially the welfare into consideration. He said that the BRS Govt did not spend even 70% of total allocations and that the Finance Minister should’ve apologised for the same.
Shabbir Ali said that the allocation of Rs. 2,200 crore for the minorities’ welfare was not sufficient as Muslims, Christians and other minority communities remained neglected under the KCR regime since 2014. He also slammed Harish Rao for mentioning that the allocation of Rs. 270 crore for the disbursement of loans by the Minorities Finance Corporation was an increase by Rs 239 crore from the previous year’s budget. He said this allocation should’ve been increased to at least Rs. 2,000 crore as BRS Govt did not give a single rupee loan to any jobless youth of the minority community since 2014.
He said it was ridiculous for the Finance Minister to announce the distribution of 20,000 sewing machines to poor Muslim women through the Minorities Finance Corporation. “Instead of giving financial support to promote entrepreneurship among Muslim women, KCR Govt wants them to remain confined to the stitching of clothes,” he said.
Shabbir Ali said that the Congress party would expose the dual standards and anti-minority approach of the BRS Govt during the Haath Se Haath Jodo Yatra launched across the Telangana State today.
