Hyderabad: Chief Minister A. Revanth Reddy on Wednesday accused the previous BRS government of resorting to “economic destruction” of Telangana in the past 10 years, in his speech after the Congress government released a White Paper on the state’s finances in the Assembly.
Revanth Reddy came down hard on the BRS for pushing revenue-surplus Telangana state, as of 2014, into a debt trap “with its financial mismanagement and corruption in the past 10 years”.
Dismissing allegations by other parties behind the motive of releasing the White Paper, Revanth Reddy said it was done to apprise the public about the financial condition of the state. Making it clear that the intention behind the White Paper “was not to send a message that Telangana was bankrupt or as an insult targeting other parties or belittling someone, but place facts before the people”. The Chief Minister said the BRS regime hid the facts from the public, instead, creating a myth that Telangana was a rich state while taking loans indiscriminately under heads of various corporations.
Airing his view in a debate on the White Paper, Revanth Reddy accused the previous BRS government of cheating banks to secure loans for the Kaleshwaram project and Mission Bhagiratha.
“The BRS government obtained loans of Rs 97,449 crore from banks on behalf of Kaleshwaram corporation for Kaleshwaram project, with false claims that the project would generate Rs 5,199 crore per year by supplying water to agriculture, industries and for drinking water purpose. But, the corporation has no such income. Similarly, it obtained loans for Mission Bhagiratha with false claims that this project will earn Rs 10,800 crore year by supplying water, but there is no such income. They even took loans in the name of TSIIC with false claims.
They misled the banks by submitting fake reports,” Revanth Reddy said.
He pointed out to CAG reports of 2015-16 and 2018-19 that clearly stated that the BRS government was portraying budget borrowings as income, and that the entire budget exercise was faulty.
“At the time of formation of state in 2014, Telangana had positive balances (reserves) in its account for 303 days in a year on average. But due to financial mismanagements, these days fell by more than half. Today, the situation is such that we are forced to stand before RBI for loan every day,” he said.
Revanth Reddy reiterated his claim that the was corruption to the tune of Rs 1 lakh crore in guise of the Kaleshwaram Lift Irrigation Scheme. He said the BRS government failed to fulfil any of its major poll promises even after spending Rs 13,72,000 crore in the past 10 years.
“They failed to deliver on 2BHK houses, 3-acre land for Dalits, left huge arrears of fee reimbursement for students, Aarogyasri arrears, no salaries for mid-day meal workers and outsourcing employees in Secretariat,” he said.
