Bharat Rashtra Samithi (BRS) working president and MLA K.T. Rama Rao. File
| Photo Credit: ANI
Bharat Rashtra Samithi (BRS) working president and the party’s MLA K.T. Rama Rao (KTR) has faulted the ruling Congress for its ‘false propaganda’ against the previous Government headed by former Chief Minister K. Chandrasekhar Rao and asserted that Telangana was among the top States in several performance indicators because of the steps taken by the BRS Government.
State’s GSDP grew from ₹4 lakh crore to₹14.65 lakh crore in 10 years
This can be observed by going through the figures of the Government’s own document ‘Socio-Economic Outlook 2024’ (SEO)tabled in the State Assembly which showed how the State had performed better than many others in terms of Per Capita Income, Gross State Domestic Product and other indices over the past 10 years, KTR said. From the uncertainty prevailing at the time of its formation, Telangana emerged as number one State with per capita income of ₹3.7 lakh. This was because of the proactive policies of the previous Government which resulted in State’s GSDP growth from ₹4 lakh crore at the time of its formation to ₹14.65 lakh crore in 10 years and the State’s contribution to GDP increased from 4.1 per cent to 5 per cent during the period.
“Despite economic hurdles, the resilience of the State was bolstered by the proactive policies,” he said quoting the SEO report. He took objections to claims that the Congress Government had to rely on loans to repay the old loans taken by the BRS Government and said the SEO asserted that Telangana was on the top in terms of development expenditure at 74 per cent, while the committed expenditure for salaries, pensions and interest payment was at 47 per cent much lower than the national average of 56 per cent.
Telangana was on the top in terms of State’s own tax revenues at 84 per cent and the State never crossed the prescribed limits in borrowings despite the economy suffering severe impact due to Covid-19. “The debt to GSDP ratio of Telangana is at 27.8 per cent which is much lower than 59 per cent of the Central Government,” he said, adding the fiscal deficit remained at 2.5 per cent.
“Don’t curse the State as bankrupt. It could adversely impact the investments into various sectors,” he said.
State budget had no mention of Congress guarantees
Lamenting that the Government could not fulfil assurances despite setting 100 day deadline, Mr. Rama Rao wondered how could any one appreciate the State budget 2024-25 which had no mention of its own guarantees. The Congress, he said, cheated all sections in the budget by not making a mention of ₹ 2,500 a month sustenance allowance to women, ₹4,000 Aasara pensions, Vidya Bharosa promising sops to students in different categories and electric vehicles to girl students. “Unfortunately there is no recall provision in the Constitution,” he said, alleging that the Government had in fact initiated the process for recovering payments made under Rythu Bharosa, pensions and other schemes from the beneficiaries.
