Hyderabad: Amid the stormy Assembly session on Wednesday caused by the Congress government’s White Paper on state finances since 2014, the BRS found some calm in the arms of the MIM, with Akbaruddin Owaisi questioning the objective behind publishing the White Paper.
Asserting that the “state has debt, but progressed”, Akbaruddin questioned if the White Paper sought to highlight the acts of omission or commission of the previous government in managing the state finances or “create a grim situation” to avoid implementing its Six Guarantees and umpteen other promises made.
In his address to the Assembly, he said, “In trying to score political brownie points, one should not belittle the state. One should not give the impression that the state is not viable, driving away investors. The state has debt but has progressed. Telangana's Gross State Domestic Product (GSDP) at current prices in 2022-23 is Rs 13,13,391 crore, with a growth rate of 16.3 per cent, which is higher than India’s growth rate of 16.1 per cent. The per capita income (PCI) of Telangana at current prices in 2022-23 is Rs 3,12,398, which is Rs 1,40,122 more than the national per capita income of Rs 1,72,276 and currently ranks third among the states and union territories.”
“These were made clear in two booklets on ‘Telangana Economy’ and ‘Telangana State At A Glance’ released by the Congress government on December 13,” he said.
“The industrial sector has achieved a growth of 15.8 per cent, industrial sector 10 per cent and the services a remarkable 20.6 per cent in 2022-23, which is higher than overall India’s growth of 17.3 per cent. The GSDP of Telangana has grown from '5,05,849 crore in 2014-15 to Rs 13,13,391 crore in 2022-23, recording a compound annual growth rate of 12.7 per cent. IT exports have increased from Rs 75,070 crore in 2014-15 to Rs 2,41,275 crore in 2022-23, while the overall exports of the state have jumped three-fold, from Rs 1,10,514 crore in 2014-15 to Rs 3,33,042 crore in 2022-23,” Owaisi said.
Akbaruddin also questioned the estimate of 41.68 per cent of funds being spent on the Telangana region in the budgets of the erstwhile united Andhra Pradesh until 2014, as cited by the White Paper.
“How can you rework the combined AP state figures by earmarking 41.68 per cent proportion for Telangana region? What was the population ratio of Seemandhra and Telangana in 1956-57 to 2010-11? This is how the bureaucrats play with the credibility of their political bosses by passing off cooked-up figures. Can you show one budget document of united AP where the cited data is shown for Telangana?” he said.
Batting for the BRS, with the party MLAs thumping their benches in his support, he said, “To put the record straight, I would like to give due credit to the previous government for the progress achieved by Telangana state. Despite all the constraints and discrimination meted out by the Central government, Telangana state recorded impressive progress in all sectors, including developmental activities and welfare programmes in the past 10 years.”
