RTI ‘war’: Toddy tappers corp not paid, finds Bandi

HYDERABAD: The state government has disbursed only one fourth of the funds it had sanctioned for the welfare of toddy tappers since 2014- 15. This information was revealed to a RTI query by state BJP president Bandi Sanjay Kumar.

It may be recalled that in the first week of July, Sanjay had announced that he had filed around 100 RTI queries with various government departments, and state-sponsored, or, owned organisations like Telangana Toddy Tappers Cooperative Finance Corporation Limited (TTTCFC).

He urged all his party leaders to file similar RTI queries at the district and mandal levels as part of the party’s decision to be armed with RTI replies and take on the TRS-led government on multiple issues. With regard to the actual money spent, TTTCFC said that between 2014-15 and 2021-22, the government had sanctioned Rs 76.30 crore but only Rs 24.83 crore was actually released. The corporation spent Rs 18.79 crore of that money, the RTI reply said. It was way back in 2018- 19 they had last received Rs 21.54 crore of the Rs 65 crore that was sanctioned. The corporation used around Rs 15.50 crore. In the last eight years, the state government released funds only thrice-2015-16, 2017-18 and 2018-19.