Telangana Records Growth Rate of 15.3% Despite Central Govt's Reduced Allocations

Telangana has registered a growth rate of nearing to 15.3% in its state revenues during the present fiscal even though the central government has been reducing the allocations by about 12.9% under the Centrally Sponsored Schemes (CSS) and other schemes compared to last fiscal. In terms of state own tax revenues, Telangana has topped the national chart among the states having 11.5% growth rate.

The Marathon meeting of the State Cabinet chaired by the Chief Minister K Chandrashekar Rao at Pragati Bhavan here on Thursday, the meeting lasted for than 6 hours.

The cabinet discussed at length, state's financial condition as well as mobilisation of varied resources in the wake of decline in the centre allocations.

Chief Minister Chandrashekhar Rao has opined that the state's growth rate has been stunted due to the lopsided policies adopted by the union government. "if the Central government has achieved the progress equal to Telangana state, the State's GSDP would have been increased by another 3 lakh crores the total would be Rs.14.50 lakh crores.

The Centre's lackadaisical attitude when it comes to Telangana continues even though, the youngest state has been setting a record such as income growth of about 3 times since the new state formation. While the state revenues stood at Rs. 62,000 crores in the first year of its formation for the year, 2014 to 2015, it has increased to Rs.1.84 lakh crore last fiscal. Further, the Telangana has contributed about 5% of the nation's despite having only 2.5% of the total population.

On the occasion, the Principal Secretary for IT as well as Industries Jayesh Ranjan has informed the Cabinet that 1.55 lakh new jobs were created in IT sector last year, making Telangana the largest job creator in the nation. The IT sector has developed significantly in Telangana with the new initiatives, incentives, investor-friendly policies, infrastructure creation, maintenance of law and order, uninterrupted quality power supply and availability of human resources.

The Chief Minister has expressed his happiness on the rapid growth of IT sector in the state and appreciated the efforts of IT Minister KT Rama Rao, IT Secretary Jayesh Ranjan and other officials in this regard.