Eatala Rajender snubs oppn for distorting facts

Hyderabad: Medical and Health Minister Eatala Rajender said that the State government has decided that the rural development, irrigation and agriculture, health, education and creation of employment opportunities are the five priority areas for the next five years.

Replying on the Appropriation Bill on the Vote-on-Account budget in the State Legislative Council here on Monday, he asked members from the Opposition parties to speak on the basis of facts, before accusing the government.

Sharing concerns raised by Congress members Shabbir Ali, Ponguleti Sudhakar Reddy, AIMIM's Syed Amin Jafri and BJP MLC N Ramachander Rao on insufficient budgetary allocations, he said, “the expenditure of the States or the Centre always hover around 85 to 90 per cent of the budget estimates. And, Telangana is no exception to this.”

Countering the allegations that State government spend less than the funds earmarked to SC, ST, BC, minorities, education and health, Eatala rolled out the actual expenditure figures finalised by the CAG for the financial years starting from 2014-15 to 2017-18. Rajender said that the actual expenditure stood at above 80 per cent to as high as 102.6 per cent during the 2017-18 fiscal.

Similarly, expenditure on the SC and ST development in last five years was more than what the Congress had spent during 10 years of its government prior to the formation of sperate Telangana, he pointed out.

He dismissed that the State government had allocated only around 6.7 per cent for the education in the Vote-on-Account budget presented for 2019-20 and clarified the proposed expenditure is around 10.2 per cent.

He reiterated that the State government is committed to taking care of farmers procuring farm produce with minimum support price. The Health Minister also denied the charge by Congress member's that the State government had incurred a loss of around Rs 40,000 crore funds from the Centre since the time it had presented a surplus budget in 2014-15 to satisfy its own ego.

Dismissing the same he said that 14th Finance Commission calculations were based 49 per cent on the revenue generated from Hyderabad against an expenditure of 32 per cent during the financial years starting from 2004 to 2013. This had resulted in cutting down the tax devaluation pegged at 2.89 per cent in the united AP to 2.6 per cent after the formation of Telangana, he said.

The house unanimously passed the appropriation Vote-on-Account bill for 2019-20. Earlier, in the morning the Congress and the BJP members expressed doubts over the meagre allocations to the Panchayat Raj institutions.

The BJP member pointed out that the central funds released to the Panchayat Raj institutions have been appropriated by the State government towards pending power bills against the constitutional mandate. However, refuting the charge, Legislative Affairs Minister V Prasanth Reddy said, “government is only collecting power bills of the motors used to run drinking water supply.”