Govt failed in making sufficient allocations for its lofty promises, budget bunch of lies: Harish Rao

HYDERABAD: Former Finance Minister T Harish Rao said that the interim budget presented by the Congress Government on Saturday was nothing but a document full of lies with allocations much less than the required funds for the implementation of six guarantees.

“The Congress Government in its manifesto said that every day the Chief Minister will hold a ‘Praja Darbar’, what happened to that promise? Revanth Reddy attended only for one day, then for a few days, the Deputy CM and Ministers attended. Now no one goes there,” Harish Rao pointed out highlighting the first lie.

He criticised the Congress Government for allocating only Rs 19,746 cr for the agricultural sector where as the Government would need Rs 82,000 crore to fulfill all the promises it made for this crucial sector.

Also Read: Harish Rao advises CM Revanth Reddy to tone down sarcasm in public speeches

“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 go for establishment costs like salaries, “Harish said.

Daring the Chief Minister to accompany him to any substation in Telangana to prove that the agriculture sector was receiving 24 hours of free power. “Not more than 14 hours at any substation on any given day. It is also a millennium joke that Congress gave 24-hour power to the farming sector when it was in power,” he added.

He also pointed out that the Finance Minister kept saying the Government fulfilled two guarantees out of the six but only free bus service was implemented in Mahalakshmi scheme. “The six guarantees have 13 components in them and still 11 of them have to be fulfilled,” Harish Rao.

“Filling up false information in the sacrosanct budget document deserves a privilege motion. CM says that the Government released January month’s Asara pension, 4,16,500 Indiramma houses will need nearly Rs 23,000 crore, you allocated Rs 7,000 crore in Budget, Priyanka and Rahul Gandhi assured Rs 4,000 employment dole, where is the allocation,” Harish asked the Congress Government.

Harish Rao said that the budget document made no mention of allocations for 3 DAs and PRC for the Government employees, provisions for two lakh new government jobs, Rs 45,000 crore for implementation of Mahalakshmi, and Rs 8,000 crore for Gruaha Jyothi.

He pointed out that the Government made no mention of the auto drivers who were affected by the free bus scheme. “In all 21 died of suicide. They were demanding Rs 10,000 financial assistance and Rs 10 lakh for the kin of the deceased,” he said.

“The Government mentioned that it would go for Rs 59,615 crore from open borrowings. The same Congress which made a hue and cry when we borrowed Rs 40,000 crore today mentioned that it would borrow more than we did. Does it mean that there would be more taxes,” he said. He recalled that every single rupee that the BRS Government borrowed was invested in areas such as infrastructure that would generate income.

Questioning the Finance Minister on how he envisaged to generate Rs 59,000 crore additional income he wanted to know whether the Government intended to sell lands. “The Revanth Reddy’s Government should apologise to people of Telangana for cheating them just to come to power with the help of Goebbels propaganda,” he added.