Harish Rao says Congress Government’s white paper riddled with errors

HYDERABAD: Former Minister and Siddipet MLA T Harish Rao on Wednesday said that the Bharat Rashtra Samithi (BRS) Government had laid strong foundations for the economic strengthening of Telangana and the newly formed Congress Government was not accepting the fact for its political reasons.

Speaking at a discussion on white paper released by the Congress Government on the financial situation of Telangana in Assembly sessions, Harish Rao criticised the Congress Government for drafting the white paper with errors and it was purely to corner the previous governments. “The BRS Government had developed broad paths of progress. People of Telangana are anticipating a lot from the newly formed Congress Government,” he said.

Harish Rao pointed out that the white paper was more focused on attacking political rivals and manipulation of facts instead of development. Referring to a report drafted by the Comptroller and Auditor General of India (CAG), he said that the budget estimate and expenditure of Karnataka were riddled with errors. In the CAG report, it mentioned that the capital expenditure of Karnataka was Rs 2,31,142 crore.

However, the Congress Government in its white paper mentioned that the capital expenditure of Karnataka was Rs 2,31,642 crore. The expenditure was also shown Rs 2,61,932 crore. Based on the CAG report, it was Rs 2,54,525 crore, which means there was a difference of about Rs 7,000 crore of expenditure, he said, and added that the white paper was not drafted by the Telangana officials.

Harish Rao also alleged that the white paper was drafted by the suspended officials from Andhra Pradesh. A House Committee should be appointed on the issue to ascertain the actual facts, he demanded. In the white paper, it was mentioned that 41.68 percent was spent from 1956-57 to 2013-14 under the combined share of Andhra Pradesh and Telangana. After going through the report it was clearly evident that the Congress Government had intentionally targeted the previous government, instead of focusing on the development, he said.

The Former Minister said that progress was achieved in many fields in the last ten years in Telangana. “Usually, Debt to GSDP ratio will be taken into consideration but instead of putting this table in it, they have mentioned Debt to Revenue Receipt. Be it National or International debts are calculated as Debts to GSDP ratio-,” he said and added that there was no mention about it in the report. Harish said that Telangana stood in the fifth position from the bottom in the list of states, according to a report given by the Reserve Bank of India (RBI).

Harish Rao said that capital expenditure of Telangana was Rs 3,36,916 crore since its inception. However, the Congress Government did not mention it in its report. “The BRS Government focused on improving the assets in Telangana keeping in view the future generations. Telangana has stood as a benchmark for the country in the development of the state government's own sources of income,” he said.