hyderabad
Chief Minister A. Revanth Reddy has stated that the previous Bharat Rashtra Samithi (BRS) government in the past has reduced the State government to bank loan defaulters due to delayed payment of their loan instalments as the government has not been paying their salaries in time or on first of every month due to empty coffers.
He made the observation while intervening in the debate on the white paper tabled in the Assembly on Wednesday. He stated that the white paper was tabled not to hurt somebody or lower the reputation of Telangana or benefit politically but to mirror the factual financial position of the State.
Speaking on behalf of the Congress, Yellareddy MLA K. Madanmohan Rao stated that the CIBIL scores of State government employees were affected badly due to their inability to repay the loan instalments against loans taken for their children’s education or other family/personal needs in time as the BRS government was not able to pay salaries on the first of every month.
The inability of the government to pay salaries on the first of every month was an indication of the State’s pathetic financial position as it has been running on the overdraft facility frequently. He observed that the talk of a wealthy State propagated by BRS was a myth as over 95 lakh families were still living below poverty line. He alleged that the BRS government had ruined the education and health sectors and the education spend at 7% of the budget estimates was the lowest in the State since 1957. The position of revenue going down constantly and expenditure going up steadily and the debt to GSDP ratio had already crossed 27%. It would not augur well for the new State that was formed with high hopes.
Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) MLA from Nirmal A. Maheshwar Reddy said the State was in a debt trap and was heading towards insolvency position. He alleged that the BRS government had blamed the Centre for its failures on all fronts.
He sought to know how the new Congress government was planning to implement the welfare and development programmes and fulfil its promises with just 31% of revenue receipts available for the purpose after 35% of it going towards salaries and pensions and 34% for debt servicing.
Another Congress MLA R. Prakash Reddy (Parakal) alleged that it was only the BRS leadership and leaders who were benefited in Telangana so far. Against the tenders called with ₹400 crore for the construction of new Secretariat Building the spending was about ₹1,400 crore, he stated.
