Mahbubnagar: With no specific grants to projects, the budget fails to impress Palamuru people

Mahbubnagar: The recently announced Union Budget by Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman had nothing specifically mentioned about the major State and Central irrigation projects going on in the district. The people of Palamuru region are disheartened as they feel that the Central government should have at least given the national status to the Asia's largest Lift Irrigation project, Palamuru Ranga Reddy Lift Irrigation (PRRLI) project, taken up by the State government to irrigate more than 12 lakh acres in Mahbubnagar, Ranga Reddy and Nalgonda districts.

Expressing his displeasure, Mahbubnagar MP Manne Srinivas Reddy said that the Union budget was not at all favourable to Telangana region and despite repeated requests, the Central government had not included the PRRLI project in the budget to give it as a national status. "Not a single promise made in the Reorganisation Act for Telangana State has been fulfilled by the Central government through this budget. We deeply regret the Centre's attitude towards Telangana. We were at least expecting huge allocations to pending and ongoing railway projects. But here also we were given raw deal," said the MP.

Another leader from Communist Party of India, Paramesh Goud, said even though the Central government had made huge allocation of Rs 2.28 lakh crore to agriculture sector, in specific, the Central government had not mentioned as to which areas and regions would get benefit from it. "Even though huge allocations of Rs 2.28 lakh crore has been made for agriculture, the budget has not mentioned any specific region or areas of agriculture development and I don't think the region of Mahbubnagar was given any mention in this regard," said Goud.

"This budget has many contradictions. While on one hand it appears of huge allocations, on the other, there are no specifications mentioned. For instance, they said they would give solar pump sets to 20 lakh farmers, while there are 50 crore farmers in the country facing power problems. So, allocating just 20 lakh pump sets will not help the farming sector," observed P Ramulu, Nagarkurnool MP.

Similar observations were also made by the jobless youth, who expressed their reservation against the budget allocation of only Rs 3,000 crore for skill development. "This is the 6th budget being introduced by the Narendra Modi government, but in all these budgets, they have allocated nothing for the unemployed youth. They promised to provide one crore jobs to youth every year, however, allocating a meagre of Rs 3,000 crore for skill development clearly tells that this government is talking tall but when it comes to implementation, they are failing miserably," said Venkateshwarlu, a jobless youth from Mahbubnagar.

However, the small businesses and the employees in the private and government sectors have welcomed the budget for reducing the tax burden on the salaried and middle income groups up to Rs 7.5 lakh. "The government's move to reduce tax tariffs for middle and lower income groups is a very welcome step. This initiative will help the salaried and small and medium income groups very much," said Ramachander Nayak, a contractor from Jadcherla.

While on the development front, the Palamuru region people were expecting national status to PRRLI. However, in spite of earlier promises of BJP to do so, the present government had not mentioned it in its budget. Even the earlier announced railway lines from Gadwal in Telangana to Macherla in Andhra Pradesh and the completion of Vikarabad-Narayanpet railway lines were also not mentioned. "We want the Central government to release a white paper as to how much they had allocated for railways in 2019 and how much they have allocated this year. There is no clarity and in my view, the Central government has given nothing to Mahbubnagar in this budget. The SCs, STs and BCs have been given no extra allocation for their welfare and development," observed the Nagarkurnool MP.

Former TRS MP and current BJP leader AP Jitender Reddy said that during previous budgets, Mahbubnagar had good allocations of Rs 200 crore each for Vikarabad and Krishna railway lines and another Rs 200 for doubling and electrification of Kacheguda-Mahbubnagar railway lines. We have to wait and see from the Railway department the detailed allocations for the district.