Chief Minister K. Chandrasekhar Rao has stated that average spending under five major welfare heads during the last seven years of TRS government was five times higher than the amount spent during the previous 10 years of Congress rule.
Replying the short discussion on “Government Welfare Programmes in the State” in the Legislative Assembly on Friday, he said a total of ₹74,165 crore was spent during the last seven years on SC Development, Tribal Welfare, BC Welfare, Minorities Welfare and Women Development and Child Welfare against ₹21,663 crore spent during the previous 10 years.
The numbers reeled out by him were figures audited by the Comptroller and Auditor General (CAG), the Chief Minister said adding that the average spend on the five welfare areas was ₹2,166 crore a year during the previous Congress rule (2004-14), while it was ₹10,115 crore during the last seven years (2014-21).
Suggesting the Opposition parties, particularly BJP, to stop claiming about Centre’s funding the Chief Minister said Central devolution to States was a constitutional obligation of the Centre and a constitutional right of States and it was not any alms given to the States. He noted that against ₹42,000 crore received by Telangana during the last seven-and-a-half years as Central devolution against ₹2,74,000 crore contributed by Telangana in the form of taxes during the same period.
A testimony to the State’s economic resilience was the Reserve Bank of India’s (RBI) recent report in which it had complimented Telangana as four best contributing States to GDP. The per capita income of Telangana was ₹2,37,638 against the national per capita of ₹1,28,829 and that of Andhra Pradesh was ₹1,70,215.
On double-bedroom housing to those who have house sites, the Chief Minister said the government was working out a scheme of the extent of funding to the beneficiaries for constructing houses on their own. To begin with, about 1,000 to 1,500 such sanctions would be given to every Assembly Constituency, he stated. The cost of each 2BHK in Hyderabad was going up ₹11 lakh now, he noted.
Earlier, A. Jeevan Reddy (TRS), M. Bhatti Vikramarka (Congress), Akbaruddin Owaisi (AIMIM) and T. Raja Singh (BJP) participated in the discussion. While Mr. Jeevan Reddy and Mr. Owaisi complimented the government for its work of welfare such as Aasara social security pensions, Kalyana Lakshmi/Shadi Mubarak, KCR Kits, residential schools and others.
Mr. Vikramarka said there was scope for further improvement in the delivery of welfare schemes. He requested the government to give other essential commodities along with rice as part of public distribution system.
