Ministers Mallu Bhatti Vikramarka and Ponnam Prabhakar holding a pre-budget meeting of Transport and BC Welfare departments in Hyderabad on Tuesday.
| Photo Credit: By Arrangement
hyderabad
Deputy Chief Minister and Minister for Finance and Energy Mallu Bhatti Vikramarka has asked the Transport department authorities to look out for innovative ways to improve its income, as people have high hopes on the Congress government and it requires good income to fulfil its promises.
Holding a pre-budget meeting of the Transport and Backward Classes Welfare departments, along with Minister for BC Welfare and Transport Ponnam Prabhakar and officials of the two departments, on Tuesday, Mr. Vikramarka said that the government would help the TSRTC financially for implementing the Mahalaxmi scheme.
The Minister stated that implementation of the free bus travel for women scheme successfully had necessitated purchase of new buses and there was a demand for new recruitment in the RTC.
Stating that there was a lot of scope to improve the revenue of the Transport department, he suggested the authorities to focus on increasing the sources of revenue internally as also enhance its efficiency. As the income/receipts of the department were not on the expected lines this (2023-24) year, there was need to prepare budget estimates based on the ground reality.
He asked the RTC authorities to focus on measures to reduce the expenditure and look for ways to improve revenue on the lines of Metro Rail. Expressing concern over the increasing road accidents, the Minister told the authorities to study the models to bring down road accidents.
Asking the BC Welfare authorities to give priority to improve the functioning of BC residential schools, he told them to study schemes for improving the skills of those engaged in community-based vocations.
Study circles for BCs
Mr. Prabhakar said that the government was committed to set up study circles for BCs in every district as also for construction of own buildings for BC residential schools and enhance the number of overseas scholarships to BC students from the present 300 a year.
Special Chief Secretary (Finance) K. Ramakrishna Rao, Principal Secretaries K. S. Sreenivasa Raju (R&B) and B. Venkatesham (BC Welfare), Commissioner of Transport Jyoti Buddha Prakash, and MD of TSRTC V.C. Sajjanar participated in the meeting.
