The State Government has criticized the Central Government for its attempts to create hurdles in the path of progress of Telangana.
“The State has suffered discrimination even after formation. In the combined State, we suffered at the hands of the then rulers. And, now we suffer a similar discrimination by the Centre,” Finance Minister T. Harish Rao said while presenting the budget for 2022-23 in the Legislative Assembly on Monday.
Instead of incentivizing the States which were progressing, the Centre was trying to actively discourage them and the discrimination of Telangana started right from the day of the formation of the State, he said.
Mr. Harish Rao came down heavily on the Central government during his close to two-hour budget speech. He recalled how mandals in Khammam district were merged with Andhra Pradesh and how the Centre failed to fulfil promises made in the Reorganisation Act. As if this was not enough, comments like “killing the mother for saving the baby” were made whenever there was discussion on the formation of Telangana. “These comments made by elders at the Centre are an insult to the people of Telangana,” he said.
The ITIR project that was allocated to the State was cancelled and in the process, the Centre had denied an opportunity to the State for further development of the IT sector. The Centre had notified nine districts of the State as backward, but the grant which was supposed to be given to these districts was delayed, he said.
“On the one hand, the Centre talks about cooperative federalism, but on the other, it acts against the spirit of federalism and is encroaching on the powers of the State,” he lamented.
The State government had submitted a number of proposals to the Centre and Chief Minister K. Chandrasekhar Rao met Prime Minister Narendra Modi personally and handed over these requests. However, no action was taken and no funds were released. “The NITI Ayog has recommended an amount of ₹24,205 crore to be released for Mission Bhagiratha and Mission Kakatiya schemes. The Centre has not even released 24 paise,” he said.
The Minister recalled that tax incentives were promised under Section 94(1) of the AP Reorganisation Act, 2014 to attract new industries but no significant incentives were given. Bayyaram steel factory, Kazipet rail coach factory and improving rail connectivity to the State were some of the issues that were still pending implementation. An amount of ₹495 crore was inadvertently released to Andhra Pradesh during 2014 under the Centrally-sponsored schemes.
“These monies are yet to be received. We can understand the negligent attitude of the Centre by this,” he said adding it was customary for the Centre to accept the recommendations of the Finance Commission, but the present government had not followed the custom. State-specific grants - ₹2,362 crore, and sector-specific grants - ₹3,024 crore, totaling to ₹5,386 crore - were denied to Telangana, he said.
