Hyderabad: In a major shock to the state Bharatiya Janata Party, Union finance minister Nirmala Sitharaman on Tuesday revealed that the Centre did not permit additional borrowing by the Telangana state government as it had rejected the pre-condition of fixing meters to agriculture pump sets.
Her revelation proved wrong the claims of the state BJP leaders including TS BJP chief and Union minister G. Kishan Reddy and former state unit chief Bandi Sanjay all these days that the Centre had never laid down such a pre-condition.
Predictably, Chief Minister K. Chandrasekhar Rao wasted no time in going on the attack against the BJP which, he said, was anti-framer, while the Congress dubbed her revelation about 10 days before the polls as an attempt to project Chandrashekar Rao as the messiah of farmers, as part of tacit understanding between the two parties.
“Nirmala Sitharaman shamelessly admitted that the Centre had insisted on meters for agriculture pump sets and it is the BRS which stood behind farmers,” Chandrashekar Rao said at a public meeting in Suryapet.
Accusing Sitharaman of helping the BRS, senior Congress leader and MP N. Uttam Kumar Reddy said: "She was sent to Hyderabad to help the failing and collapsing BRS as part of their understanding."
Maintaining that the electricity Act had no provision for compulsory fixing of meters to pump sets, Uttam Kumar Reddy categorically stated the Congress would never take up such an anti-farmer measure.
The controversy began with the Union finance minister, at a press conference in Hyderabad, stating: "The Centre put a pre-condition that states should fix meters to pump sets if they want to raise 0.5 per cent loans above the FRBM limit. Almost every state agreed for the condition but Telangana did not,” she said.
She, however, made it clear that Centre did not insist that the states to do away with free power to the farm sector. “We only said they can’t avail additional loans,” she pointed out.
“Telangana was formed to do justice to people on water, funds and jobs. With the BRS in power for a decade now it is time they answer questions on their performance in the last ten years,” Sitharaman said.
“A revenue surplus state in 2014 has been left debt-ridden though it inherited a capital with lot of investment potential and availability of skilled manpower. Telangana has failed to manage fiscal and debt management. What will they do if they come to power again,” she asked.
Sitharaman said that the next two to three generations would have to pay the debt taken by the BRS government. In this context, the claim that Telangana state had the highest per capita income doesn’t wash.
“Coming to water, we have seen the fate of Kaleshwaram whose investment increased three times to more than Rs 1.2 lakh crore along with compromised quality which has led to sinking of pillars. Having promised to make a Dalit CM, they removed the deputy CM of Telangana Tatikonda Rajaiah from his position within one year,” the Union finance minister said.
“Of the Rs 3,300 crore allocated for the BCs only Rs 76 crores was spent. The education sector has been neglected by not filling the vacancies in universities. The literacy rate in Telangana is just 66 per cent while the national average is 72 per cent,” she said.
She said that Chandrashekar Rao had failed to give the promised Rs 3,016 per month to the unemployed youth. The Biswal committee had pegged the number of vacancies in government departments at 1.91 lakh but they were not filled and the TSPSC exams were postponed 17 times as question papers were leaked, she said.
Asked to define what a freebie was, Sitharaman said, “That should be decided based on the financial position of the state. The proposal should be included in the state Budget and passed so that the issue is deliberated and thought over. The objection is that many states are implementing them and then throwing up their hands when they are unable to handle the burden.”
