KCR kit, old city metro, Kalyana Lakshmi, Mission Bhagiratha, many BRS schemes missing in new budget

HYDERABAD: Deputy Chief Minister and Telangana Finance Minister Bhatti Vikramarka presented the vote-on-account budget for the 2024-25 financial year with a total outlay of Rs 2.76 lakh crore in the State Legislative Assembly on Saturday.

Chief Minister A Revanth Reddy’s Government made a cumulative allocation of Rs 53,196 crore to six guarantees which have 13 different components in it.

Even though this was only an interim budget, the mood of the new Government was palpable by the way the allocations were made under different heads.

Under the women and child health subhead where the earlier Government under K Chandrashekar Rao allocated Rs 200 crore during the 2023-2024 budget for the KCR nutrition kits that contain 16 essential items needed by the newborn, there was no mention of a scheme similar to that in the new budget.

The KCR Government allocated Rs 1,000 crore for new job vacancies. Though the Revanth Reddy Government promised to fill in 2 lakh jobs, it made no specific allocation for payment of their salaries once they were recruited.

Then Finance Minister T Harish Rao focussed on the development of Metro rail in the Old City of Hyderabad by allocating Rs 500 crore in 2023-24. But, the new Government that made up its mind to discontinue the Airport Metro via ORR and wanted to develop an alternative through the old city made no specific allocations in its budget, even as the acquisition of land in the busy old city would cost a bomb.

The other schemes that were covered under the ‘Abhaya Hastam’ such as Rytu Bharosa, Rytu Bima, and Kalyana Lakshmi/Shadi Mubarak were not clearly mentioned in the new budget in terms of specific allocations. The one tola gold for brides which lured voters during elections, however, was conspicuous by its absence.

“Our Government is committed to implementing Rythu Bharosa, Indiramma houses, Cheyutha and Yuva Vikasam. We are committed to implementing them at the earliest,” the Deputy CM said on Saturday.

Though some schemes were dovetailed into others with different nomenclature, the very nature of the schemes implemented by the KCR Regime were missing in the Revanth Reddy Government’s budget.

Mission Bhagiratha gets raw deal

Similarly, one of the flagship programmes of the KCR Government, the Mission Bhagiratha might also face the fate of Kaleshwaram with the government making no allocations for safe drinking water.

Indicating a silent burial of the programme, the Minister said the previous government had claimed that it had provided a safe drinking water supply to every household in the rural areas at a cost of Rs.35,752 Crore under the Mission Bhagiratha scheme.

“Though thousands of crores were spent, there are still numerous villages in the state, which have no protected drinking water facility. Hence people in rural areas are still facing the acute drinking water crisis. There is a need to rectify mistakes in the Mission Bhagiratha programme and use it optimally to avoid huge losses to public money. Hence, we have started measures to rectify the defects,” he said making no direct allocations. This means the drinking water project that inspired the Jal Jeevan project of the government of India would be imperilled.

While the BRS Government allocated Rs 26,231 crore for the irrigation sector for the 2023-24 fiscal year, the Congress would do a postmortem on the sagging of piers of Medigadda barrage. “We promised people that a thorough inquiry will be made on the quality of construction, ill-conceived designs, and corruption involved in the projects of Annaram, Medigadda, and Sundilla Barrages,” Mallu Bhatti Vikramarka said on the floor of the house. However, the budgetary allocation made for irrigation in the vote on account was Rs.28,054 crore.

Reacting to the budgetary allocations former Finance Minister T Harish Rao said on Saturday: “For Rytu Bharosa alone the Government requires Rs 20,500 crore, Rs 40,000 crore for crop loan waiver by December 9, Rs 2,000 for Rytu Bima, Rs 15,000 crore for bonus for paddy. But the Government allocates Rs 19,746 crore out of which Rs 3,000 crore goes for establishment costs like salaries.”