Hyderabad: Telangana deputy chief minister Bhatti Vikramarka on Thursday urged Union finance minister Nirmala Sitharaman to exempt the state from the Fiscal Responsibility and Budget Management (FRBM) Act to enable financial support for the Young India Integrated Residential Schools programme. He was accompanied by agriculture minister Tummala Nageswara Rao.The ministers appealed for loan restructuring, pointing out that the state continues to bear the burden of high interest borrowings made by the previous BRS govt. According to the finance ministry’s estimates, the ambitious education plan requires ₹30,000 crore—with ₹21,000 crore earmarked for constructing 105 modern campuses and another ₹9,000 crore for related investments in strengthening junior and degree colleges, technical and vocational institutions, and building digital infrastructure. To mobilise funds, the state plans to raise loans through a special purpose corporation. The ministers also sought an increase in duty on palm oil, highlighting that reduced duties are causing losses for farmers despite large-scale cultivation in Telangana. Underscoring the state’s social realities, they informed the Union minister that 56.33% of Telangana’s population belongs to backward classes, 17.43% to Scheduled Castes, and 10.45% to Scheduled Tribes. Despite rapid economic growth, they said, gaps in education and nutrition continue to perpetuate poverty. As part of the initiative, the govt plans to set up 105 tech-driven residential campuses, each accommodating about 2,560 students from classes 5 to 12. These schools will directly benefit nearly 2.7 lakh students and indirectly support around four lakh more, by acting as resource hubs for 5,250 nearby govt schools, Vikramarka explained. He stressed that the loans sought should be treated as long-term capital investment in human resource development, not routine expenditure, and requested exemption from FRBM limits accordingly.
