Miserly Telangana fails to spend its Budget

Hyderabad: The Telangana state government has been slow in spending budgetary allocations. The government presented a Rs 1.15 lakh crore Budget for 2015-16 in March, but did not spend even 15 per cent of the amount in the first quarter from April to June.

Ideally, 25 per cent of the Budget is spent every quarter, but many governments in undivided AP too could spend only about 20 per cent in the first quarter. The Telangana government is lagging behind even that mark.

Lesser spending would have its effect on the implementation various government schemes. More importantly, its impact would be felt in subsequent quarters as the government, in its hurry to achieve the targets, releases the remaining money at one go, much of which would remain unspent.

One example would be the allotment of Rs 100 crore to each government hospital in the city, including the Osmania and Gandhi hospitals in the 2014-15 Budget.
This amount was not released as officials could not send proposals to spend the money within a short time. Though these hospitals are crying for help, the money allotted to them could not be utilised.