The state budget presented on Monday by Finance Minister T Harish Rao, according to Mohammed Ali Shabbir, the former leader of the opposition in the Telangana Legislative Council, disappointed all facets of society.
As this was the KCR government’s final budget to be presented before the upcoming assembly elections, he claimed that the public had high expectations. However, the chief minister has let everyone down by not allocating enough money to crucial areas like welfare, health, and education.
According to Ali, the budget for the health and education sectors did not significantly increase because they received only 5-6% of the total allocation. Additionally, he claimed that the budget continued to ignore the welfare of Scheduled Castes, Scheduled Tribes, Backward Classes, and Minorities. SCs only got 7.23% of the total budget, STs only got 1.3%, BCs only got 2.14%, and Minorities Welfare only got 0.75% of the total budget. He claimed that these budgetary provisions were completely insufficient to carry out the most important welfare plans.
According to the leader of the Congress, percentages rather than dollar amounts are used to evaluate budgetary allocations and expenditures for the welfare of any community. He claimed that Harish Rao, on the other hand, made an attempt to mock the minority communities by claiming that the state spent Rs 8,581 crore between June 2014 and January 2023. If we consider the total spending made by the Telangana government on all sectors, especially welfare, he claimed Harish Rao should have also stated where this figure stands. He claimed that the BRS Government failed to spend even 70% of its total allotment and that the Finance Minister ought to have expressed regret.
Shabbir Ali claimed that the Rs 2,200 crore allotted for the welfare of minorities was insufficient because Muslims, Christians, and other minority communities have been ignored under the KCR administration since 2014. He also criticised Harish Rao for pointing out that the Minorities Finance Corporation’s allocation of 270 crore rupees—an increase of 239 crore rupees from the budget for the previous year—was for the disbursement of loans. He claimed that given that the BRS government has not provided a single loan of even one rupee to a single unemployed youth from a minority community since 2014, this allocation should have been increased to at least Rs. 2,000 crore.
He argued that the Finance Minister’s announcement of the Minorities Finance Corporation’s distribution of 20,000 sewing machines to underprivileged Muslim women was absurd. ‘KCR Govt wants to keep them confined to sewing clothes,’ he said, ‘instead of giving financial support to promote entrepreneurship among Muslim women.’
According to Shabbir Ali, the Congress party will highlight the BRS Government’s double standards and anti-minority policies during the Haath Se Haath Jodo Yatra, which was just launched in Telangana.
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