Chief Minister A. Revanth Reddy has asserted that he is ready to stage fast unto death in New Delhi in protest against the Central Government’s discriminatory attitude towards Telangana, concerning the allocations made in the Union budget 2024 presented by Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman on Tuesday.
He dared Bharat Rashtra Samithi (BRS) president and former Chief Minister K. Chandrasekhar Rao to join the protest asserting “let us decidewhether or not Telangana gets central funds through the stir”. The Chief Minister made these remarks on Tuesdayduring the discussion in the State Assemblyon the injustice meted out to Telangana in the budgetary allocations. He asked Mr. Chandrasekhar Rao to finalise the date and schedule to sit on dharna at Jantar Mantar in the national capital.
Taking a jibe at the BRS leadership, he said the Congress leaders never repeatedly claimed that they had put their lives at stake for Telangana nor did they ‘forget matchbox to set themselves ablaze’ and thereby instigated students to sacrifice their lives. The marathon discussion saw trading of charges and counter charges between the Congress and the BRS.
Centre did not take congnizance of Telangana Govt’s representations: Sridhar Babu
Initiating the discussion, Legislative Affairs Minister D. Sridhar Babu alleged that the Centre adopted step motherly attitude towards Telangana in allocation of funds for different projects. The Central Government did not take into cognizance several representations submitted by the Congress Government seeking implementation of the State’s justified demands. “The Centre’s attitude is highly dangerous and discriminatory. It has diluted the spirit of cooperative federalism,” he said wondering why Union Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman did not take the name of Telangana at least once in her more than two hour budget speech.
IT and Industries Minister D Sridhar Babu. File | Photo Credit: By Arrangement
The Centre had ignored the assurances given to Telangana in the Andhra Pradesh Reorganisation Act 2014 while it doled out largesse to another Telugu State Andhra Pradesh in the current budget. “We have no objections to Centre making allocations to AP, but we are objecting to the discrimination against Telangana,” he said.
No mention of Telangana Govt’s requests in Union Budget 2024
The budget, he said, did not make mention about the requests made by Telangana Government and it had failed to give a road map for resolving the issues between the two States that had been pending for a decade. The NDA Government laid claims of achieving Viksit Bharat with US $5 trillion economy, but it would not be possible without Telangana which was the major growth engine of the country. “The self respect of Telangana has been betrayed going by the current budgetary allocations,” said Mr. Sridhar Babu.
The budget made reference to Visakhapatnam-Chennai industrial corridor and also made mention about Hyderabad-Bengaluru corridor. “But the main node of the Hyderabad-Bengaluru corridorwill be located in Andhra Pradesh despite 210 km of Telangana covered in it,” he said. He charged the Centre with adopting discriminatory attitude towards Telangana claiming that promises were showered on Bihar and Andhra Pradesh, the two States supporting the NDA government, ignoring the interests of Telangana.
“Airports and other infrastructure projects have been assured to the eastern region while Telangana was neglected,” he said. The Finance Minister in her speech made specific reference of the A.P. Reorganisation Act 2014 and gave allocations to AP ignoring the interests of another sibling State Telangana. “The issues mandated by the Reorganisation Act like tax incentives, power dues, tribal university have all been set aside,” the Legislative Affairs Minister lamented.
Repeated requests by the State for allocation of pending dues of Backward Regions Grant Fund scheme and extension of these funds for five more years went in vain as the Finance Minister did not even make a mention of them. Representations submitted in respect of allocation of additional coal blocks to Singareni too fell on deaf ears while sanction of Information Technology Information Region (ITIR), Indian Institute of Management (IIM), Sainik Schools and Jawahar Navodaya Vidyalayas remained on paper.
While Telangana had the best ecosystem for pharma industry, the Centre had sanctioned bulk drug parks to Gujarat, Himachal Pradesh and Andhra Pradesh. The mega textile park had been changed from greenfield to brownfield category reducing allocation from ₹500 crore to ₹200 crore, but even these funds were not released. The National Institute of Design (NID), a promise given to Telanagna, was shifted to AP while grants pertaining to National Health Mission and Horticulture University were yet to be released. The request made by the state for IPS cadre restructuring and allotting 70 more officers remained unheeded clearly showing the discrimination against Telangana.
“Three BJP MPs in AP could secure several projects, but eight MPs including two Union Ministers from Telangana could not do any justice to Telangana,” he alleged.
