HYDERABAD: The opposition BJP and Congress in Telangana on Monday alleged that the BRS government's budget for 2023-24 presents inflated numbers and makes only false promises. Union Tourism and Culture Minister G Kishan Reddy said the budget was full of lies, inflated numbers and false promises.
"Farmhouse family allocated Rs. 1,000 cr for Advertisement & Publicity - a 575% increase. Almost same amount as allocated for Arogya Sree Health Insurance scheme for poor," Kishan Reddy tweeted.
The BRS government's budgets have a history of "high budgetary projections, decreased revised estimates and low actual spending," the Union minister added.
"This year too the same trend continues. People are fed up with such gimmicks and will see through this and say no...," Kishan Reddy further said.
In a statement, Telangana BJP president and MP Bandi Sanjay Kumar said there is absolutely no match between what was allocated in the budget and what was spent.
In the previous budget, not even 50 per cent of the allocated funds were utilised, he claimed.
"Now, the finance minister presents a huge outlay in the present budget only to hoodwink the people," Kumar claimed.
With regard to the 'Dalit Bandhu' scheme, the government had not spent much on the scheme last year though it had allocated Rs 17,700 crore, the BJP leader added.
Kumar said the allocations made for irrigation and power sectors were not sufficient even to repay the borrowings and the salaries of employees.
Finding fault with the state government for criticising the Centre for not releasing funds to the state, Kumar said many of the schemes mentioned in the budget document were funded by the Union government.
Congress MP N Uttam Kumar Reddy claimed that the proposed expenditure of Rs 2.90 lakh crore was completely unrealistic as it does not match the state's revenues.
"Apparently, for the first time in history, the Finance Minister's speech had no mention of estimated revenues. He did not specify whether the budget was surplus or deficit," he said.
He said an amount of only Rs 17,700 crore was allocated for the 'Dalit Bandhu' scheme. There were nearly 17 lakh poor Dalit families in Telangana and the budget could not cover even 10 per cent of those beneficiaries, the Congress leader added.
In contrast, several ministers in the Telangana Cabinet lauded the budget.
Panchayat Raj Minister Errabelli Dayakar Rao thanked the Chief Minister and Finance Minister for allocating Rs 31,426 crore to his department. He also thanked them for the allocation of Rs 12,000 crore for 'Aasara' social security pensions.
Agriculture Minister S Niranjan Reddy welcomed the allocation of Rs 26,831 crore towards agriculture sector.
He also hailed the proposed expenditure of Rs 1,000 crore for promotion of oil palm cultivation.
The Telangana government on Monday presented a budget of Rs 2,90,396 crore for 2023-24, up from about Rs 2.57 lakh crore last year, with welfare programmes getting a lion's share of allocation.
