By Ahmed Mohiuddin Siddiqui,
Telangana – the new born baby of the Indian union – saw its maiden budget presented by the Finance Minister E Rajender in Hyderabad Wednesday. The over Rs 1 lakh crore budget for the next ten months is a mixed bag. Telangana Chief Minister K. Chandrasekhar Rao gave priority to the electoral promises and the welfare schemes. The outlay of Rs 1,00,637 crores included Rs 48,648 crores plan outlay and Rs 51,989 crores for non-plan outlay.
The Telangana Rashtra Samithi (TRS) government allocated Rs 100 crores to the 459 martyrs of the Telangana movement with Rs 10 lakh compensation to the kith and kin of the martyrs. The restoration of water tanks sank the budget by Rs 2,000 crores, the drinking water grid watered down the budget by another Rs 2,000 crore. Pensions for the disabled amounted to Rs 367.75 crores. The medical sector was allocated Rs 2,282 crores. The Hyderabad Police will be provided with the GPS facility and with added communication modernization at a cost of Rs 371.4 crores. Rs 3,741 crores were given to the power sector and the government plans to promote solar, water and thermal generation.
There has been a power and water crisis in Telangana after the annoyed leader of Andhra Pradesh and now the Chief Minister of the truncated state N. Chandrababu Naidu pulled the fuse. Telangana has been reeling under power and water shortage crisis leading to the suicides of 350 farmers in the last five months. The Naidu-KCR power game is literally giving sleepless nights to the Telanganites. Rs 150 crores are set aside for Kalyana Laxmi (for Scheduled Caste) and Shadi Mubarak marriage schemes for Muslim girls. Shadi will be Mubarak only if the girls are educated. More needs to be spent on girls’ education.
The SC Sub-Plan accounts for Rs 7,539 crores and the ST Sub-Plan accounts for Rs 4,599 crores. Backward Classes and Social Welfare schemes were allocated Rs1,000 crores. The Minorities were allocated just Rs1,030 crores. It amounts to a cumin seed in the mouth of camel (Oonth ke muh mein zeera). What about the Minorities Sub-Plan, KCR Garu? The minorities – Muslims, Christians and others – voted for the TRS in great anticipation believing your promises. Do not forget your Muslim brothers and sisters, KCR Garu. They too want to be part of the Golden Telangana (Mee Muslim sodari sodarulaara marchipo vaddu, KCR Garu. Swarna Telangana Turkollu kooda kaawaale ).
The Chief Minister K. Chandrasekhar Rao has not forgotten the hardly working…err the hard working legislators. The legislators’ salaries have been increased from Rs 1.2 lakh per month to Rs 2 lakh per month. The constituency development fund for each legislator has been raised from Rs 1 crore to Rs 1.5 crore. For the welfare of my community – the journalist fraternity – Rs 10 crores were allotted. How can the government hope to keep the media glares away with just a token amount?
Better luck next time, KCR Garu. It remains to be seen if the allocated amounts will be really released in time specially for the minorities and the weaker sections.
