Telangana State Legislative Assembly in Hyderabad. File
| Photo Credit: RAMAKRISHNA G
The stage is all set for the budget session of the Telangana legislature on Thursday. The budget session, the first after the Congress Government took over the reins in December last yearis likely to be stormy as it comes amid challenges and counter-challenges on large scale corruption in the execution of projects during the close to 10-year-tenure of the Bharat Rashtra Samiti (BRS) Government. The session is likely to be a brief one as the Government is reportedly considering introduction of a vote-on-account budget rather than a full budget in the absence of clarity on the Central devolutions.
Tentative schedule
“We are preparing for any eventuality,” a senior Finance official said when asked whether it would be a full budget or vote-on-account budget. According to the tentative schedule, the session will start with Governor Tamilisai Soundararajan’s traditional address to the joint sitting of the legislature on Thursday. This would be followed by passage of motion of thanks to Governor’s address the next day. Finance Minister Mallu Bhatti Vikramarka will present the budget on February 10, followed by the general discussion on budget. The actual schedule of the legislature would be finalised by the Business Advisory Committee (BAC) which is likely to meet after the Governor’s address.
First session with BRS members led by KCR in Opposition benches
This will be the first budget session in which the BRS members led by its president K. Chandrasekhar Rao will be sitting in the Opposition Benches since the formation of Telangana in 2014. The session follows the inquiries ordered by the Chief Minister A. Revanth Reddy led Congress Government into irregularities in irrigation projects; Medigadda and other components of the much-publicised Kaleshwaram project in particular.
Mr. Revanth Reddy has dared the BRS for a thorough debate on the irrigation projects and offered to allow as much time to the main Opposition, provided the BRS president sits through the debate. “We are prepared to extend the session for a couple of days if the BRS is prepared to participate in the debate,” Mr. Revanth Reddy said at a recent press conference.
The Treasury Benches are expected to table a white paper on the status of irrigation projects under the previous BRS Government during the budget session, as also the facts and figures pertaining to the manner in which the previous Government had accepted to handover the components of the irrigation projects to the Central Government. The BRS which claimed that it had been protecting the State’s interests since the past 10 years criticised the Congress Government for its moves to handover the projects to the Centre which was detrimental to the interests of the State.
Even as the war of words over the irrigation projects is continuing between the ruling Congress and the main Opposition BRS, the Chief Minister has ordered a probe into Mission Bhagiratha following reports of alleged siphoning off of the money meant for the project aimed at supply safe drinking water to all households.
The ruling party appears to be firm on exposing the “mismanagement” of several sectors including Irrigation and Finances by the BRS Government which, it alleged, had pushed the revenue surplus state into a debt trap. The Congress in particular has been banking on the minutes of the meetings of the Krishna River Management Board (KRMB) to substantiate its charges that “the previous Government had mortgaged the interests of the State in lure of commissions”.
With the Chief Minister clarifying that the ruling party was for allowing elaborate debates and was against suspending the members, the way in which the BRS plans to defend its stand on the issues raised by the Congress assumes utmost importance during the session.
