Chief Minister and Telangana Rashtra Samithi (TRS) president K. Chandrasekhar Rao has asked the Members of Parliament (MPs) of the party to voice their concern against the “discriminatory and vengeful” attitude of the Centre towards Telangana during the monsoon session of Parliament starting Monday.
“Instead of encouraging the State for its progressive policies and its economic progress the Centre is acting with vengeance against Telangana development,” the Chief Minister said at a meeting with party MPs ahead of the Parliament session. He gave directions on the party’s strategy for the session, particularly to expose the Centre for its failure to keep the bifurcation promises and acting against the constitutional rights of the State.
He told party MPs to speak against the anti-people policies of the Centre impacting the development of the country adversely. Instead of encouraging Telangana going ahead with fiscal prudence, the BJP Government at the Centre was conspiring against the State’s progress and creating hurdles.
The Chief Minister explained to the MPs that Telangana’s borrowings were less than 22 other States’ in the country and the State Government was following financial discipline well within the limits prescribed by acts such as Fiscal Responsibility and Budget Management (FRBM). The State had a clean record of not defaulting on repayments (debt servicing) even on one occasion during the last eight years, he said.
Alleging that Prime Minister Narendra Modi was envying the progress made by Telangana, he sought to know whether it was not a fact that there was a huge demand for bonds issued by Telangana Government in the bids conducted by RBI for open market borrowings. He also sought to know how the Centre’s decisions against Telangana were reaching the BJP’s social media groups in advance. He alleged that the Centre was willfully leaking the information instead of keeping such matters confidential.
Mr. Chandrasekhar Rao wondered how the Centre could revise the FRBM borrowing limit of Telangana to ₹23,000 crore after announcing it at ₹53,000 crore for the current financial year after approval of the State budget as it was. He told the MPs to expose such conspiracies of the Centre against the State.
He also criticised the Centre for exerting pressure on States to help friendly corporate companies in the name of electricity reforms. He accused the Centre of neglecting the recommendations of NITI Aayog and Finance Commission made for encouraging Telangana based on its economic and social progress.
