White Papers on Finance, Energy and Irrigation to be Tabled in TS Assembly
Hyderabad: The state government will table a White Paper on Telangana’s financial condition in the Legislative Assembly on December 20, soon followed by White Papers on irrigation and energy departments, to apprise the public of the poor financial situation it inherited.
The Assembly session will resume on December 20 and is likely to be held for three days, until December 22.
Deputy Chief Minister Bhatti Vikramarka, who holds the finance and energy portfolios, will produce the finance White Paper on December 20 and the power one the next day, while irrigation minister N. Uttam Kumar Reddy is expected to table the irrigation White Paper on December 22.
Bhatti held a series of meetings with finance officials to assess the condition of the state government, with official sources indicating that the finances were poor due to huge debts incurred by the BRS government that ruled the state from June 2014 to December 2023.
They said that under the BRS regime, the debt burden of the state government increased from Rs 70,000 crore to Rs 4 lakh crore. This apart, the government took loans of nearly Rs 1.5 lakh crore through various state-owned corporations, taking the total debt burden to nearly Rs 5.5 lakh crore.
The financial condition of power utilities also turned worse under the BRS regime, with its debt burden at nearly '85,000 crore due to free power supplied to agriculture and other subsidies to various sections. The BRS government failed to repay the subsidies to discoms, pushing them into losses.
The irrigation sector is also facing a crisis due to massive pending bills of contractors. The BRS government spent a large amount of funds from loans on the Kaleshwaram project and Mission Bhagiratha. The Kaleshwaram project faces an uncertain future following the sinking of the piers of the Medigadda barrage and construction defects found at the Annaram and Sundilla barrages
