Appropriation Bill passed by voice vote in Telangana Assembly

Hyderabad: The Telangana State Legislature on Tuesday unanimously approved the Appropriation Bill of 2018-19 by a voice vote.

The Bill was introduced in the Legislative Assembly by finance minister Etela Rajender. The Opposition parties — BJP, TD and CPM — slammed the government for introducing populist schemes in the Budget to attract voters, keeping the 2019 elections in mind.

Chief Minister K. Chandrasekhar Rao responded by saying, “In a democracy, the duty of political parties is to attract voters. What’s wrong with that? All political parties do it. Why this hypocrisy?"

MIM leader Akbaruddin Owaisi, BJP leader G. Kishan Reddy, TD leader Sandra Venkata Veeraiah and CPM MLA Sunnam Rajaiah participated in the debate.

Mr Owaisi said that though Rs 1,000 crore had been allotted for the welfare of minorities in the previous Budget, only Rs 800 crore had been released. He asked the government to ensure that funds were completely utilised in the upcoming financial year.

Mr Kishan Reddy dismissed the government’s claims of submitting a revenue surplus Budget every year. He said that in reality, the government was facing debt. He said the payment arrears amounting to several thousands of crores was pending with the finance department.

In his two-hour response, the Chief Minister said that Telangana had made rapid strides in all sectors over the past four years.

“The state’s per-capita income and GDP are higher than the national average. This shows the strong financial state of Telangana’s economy. There are only eight states in the country which contribute more funds to the Centre than they receive from it, of which Telangana is one. We pay over Rs 50,000 crore to the Centre in the form of various taxes every year, but receive less than Rs 25,000 crore in return,” Mr Rao said.

He added that the TRS government had been successful in increasing its Budget and achieving its targets for expenditure for the past four years. 

Referring to allegations that the TRS government was pushing the state towards a debt crisis, Mr Rao said, “The broad fiscal policy of the country lies with the Centre. No state is allowed to obtain loans for above 3.5 per cent of its GSDP, as per the Centre’s FRBM Act. We secured loans that we are eligible for. 

The possibility of Telangana securing more loans does not arise.”

TS assembly extended for 2 more days

The ongoing session of the Telangana Legislative Assembly has been extended by two days. The Business Advisory Committee (BAC) met on Tuesday and took a decision to the effect. 

The state government has decided to pass two important bills related to the panchayat raj and municipal administration. It wants to introduce amendments to the acts that govern the formation of new nagar panchayats and municipalities in the state. It also wants to introduce some changes in the panchayat election process. 

Congress MLC Ponguleti Sudhakar Reddy criticised the state government by saying that it was trying to pass the Panchayat Raj Bill in the Legislative Assembly and the Legislative Council in the absence of the main Opposition. 

Private varsities bill introduced

The Telangana government on Tuesday introduced the long-pending Private Universities Bill 2018 in the Assembly which was likely to be passed on Wednesday after a debate.

The move had invited the wrath of government teachers’ associations and student organisatio-ns, who said the government was attempting to ‘privatise’ higher education totally in a phased manner. They had threatened to intensify their ag-itation programmes and expressed concern over higher education turning unaffordable for middle and low income groups.

It was learnt that the Reliance Group was keen on setting up a world-class university on city outskirts. Besides, other private universities like Gitam, ICFAI and few other major engineering college chains also had plans.