Focus on your state’s progress first, Sitharaman tells KCR

HYDERABAD: Union finance minister Nirmala Sitharaman criticised the Telangana government for ‘lifting’ and rechristening Central government schemes and presenting them as its own initiatives. She said that the double bedroom housing scheme and Mana ooru-Mana Badi scheme were both inspired by Centre’s schemes. She accused the state government of deliberately not implementing the Bharat Ayushman scheme and thereby depriving millions of Telangana people of its benefits.

She was addressing the Lok Sabha Pravas Yojana core committee meeting of Zaheerabad parliamentary constituency in Kamareddy on Thursday.

Sitharaman said that the state government’s debts have crossed FRBM limits. Today, each child born in Telangana owes `1.25 lakh in debt, she said.

“Whenever we seek clarification on the debt-spree, Chief Minister K. Chandrashekar Rao begins to blame the central government”, she said. The minister asked Rao to concentrate on his state and stop blaming the Centre for everything.

Sitharaman alleged that misappropriation and graft in Kaleshwaram lift irrigation works has been the main cause for the increase in the project cost from Rs.38,500 crore to Rs. 1.20 lakh crore.

Telangana state stood fourth in farmers’ suicide cases and TRS government failed to implement Pradhan Manthri Fasal Bima Yojana, she said.

On the widely publicised video showing Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar readying to leave when Rao was still speaking, the minister said the Bihar leader could not withstand  what he was saying.

BJP state general secretary G. Premender Reddy, Kamareddy district party president Aruna Tara and other senior leaders were present.