Amit Shah's claims are lies: KCR says Centre surviving on Telangana funds
Hyderabad: Stung by Bharatiya Janata Party national president Amit Shah’s declaration that the state government is claiming credit for centrally-sponsored welfare schemes, Chief Minister K. Chandrasekhar Rao on Wednesday said that on the contrary it was the Centre that was surviving on funds contributed by Telangana state.
He said that Telangana state paid Rs 50,013 crore to the Centre in the form of various taxes in 2016-17 but TS got only Rs 24,561 crore in return. This shows who owed funds to whom, he said.
He said the Centre was not showing any meherbaani in giving funds to TS and whatever funds the state got from the Centre was as per the mandate of the Constitution in our federal set-up and what all 29 states in the country get.
He said only six or seven states in the country contribute funds to the Centre and TS is one of them; the rest are revenue-deficit states. He added that the Centre depends on these six-seven states for money.
Prove charge: KCR to Shah
Mr Rao said TS earned over Rs 1 lakh crore in foreign exchange for the Centre from IT exports. He ridiculed Mr Shah’s claims of the Centre giving over Rs 1 lakh crore to TS and an additional Rs 20,000 crore every year, and Rs 40,000 crore to universities. He said TS has got Rs 67,390 crore from the Centre since the formation of the state.
Addressing a press conference at Pragathi Bhavan, Mr Rao termed Mr Shah’s statements “blatant lies, unwarranted and unjustified”. Mr Rao dared Mr Shah to prove his figures wrong and said he was ready to quit as Chief Minister if so proved. He demanded that Mr Shah tender an unconditional apology to the people of TS for telling them lies.
“In September last, he came here and made similar comments. I remained quiet. But for the last three days, he has been making serial attacks on the TRS government with blatant lies. If I remain quiet, it will be viewed as my endorsing him, which I don’t. I want to put the facts before the public and expose him before he leaves Telangana,” Mr Rao said. Mr said “His lies will kill Telangana which is leading on all fronts in the country.”
