Telangana Congress on Thursday demanded declaration of financial emergency in the state and sought immediate release of a white paper on state finances. Following chief minister K.Chandrasekhar Rao clarification that the state had no money for the one-time waiver of the farmers’ loans, Congress chief spokesperson Dr Shravan Dasoju said the state was on the verge of bankruptcy because of severe financial indiscipline in the TRS government.
In a press release, Dr Dasoju said the separate Telangana state had fallen victim of TRS government’s efforts to create an illusion in the eyes of public and investors that Telangana was surplus state and rich state. ” The government has inflated all budgetary figures to show that the small state of Telangana has larger than life size budget because of so called efficiency of TRS. The CM had misled the Assembly and the people. The Chief minister silently attempted to cover up this illusion by levying all taxes and resorting revenue generation methods, including introduction of cheap liquor. But, vigilant Telangana people have successfully thwarted these attempts. Now when Congress demanded one-time settlement of loans, the chief minister on one side and his son KTR on the other demand equal treatment for Telangana on a par with Bihar and special packages,” Dr Dasoju said asking why did the government send reports to the centre mentioning Telangana as a surplus state.
According to Dr Dasoju, the mask of the TRS government was torn apart. “To prevent the unrest errupt from the people, in the past 15 months chief ministers used every trick in the book. The CM wanted to divert the people‘s attention from the reality to the so called Telangana glory to survive. The government had spent Rs 600 crore on the Godavari Pushkaralu to create a wave of hype so that people could be bogged down by the glory . Later, the government allotted about Rs 182 crore on Sammakka Sarakka festival to invoke glory mantra again. Now KCR government is planning to spend huge amount to make people forget the real situation in the glory of T-culture in the name of Bathukamma festival. The farmers’ continued suicides are the result of government’s refusal to make one time settlement of the loan permanently,” he said.
Whenever Congress questioned the failure of the government, KCR would try to pass the buck to united Andhra Pradesh government, he accused. Stating that today’s adjournment of Assembly till Monday was a ploy to avoiding facing Congress party’s inconvenient questions, the Congress leader alleged.
” Normally, Assembly is adjourned for ten minutes to one hour only to strike rapprochement between the treasury and opposition benches. This type of declaring holiday, when the life of thousands of farmers is hanging in balance, is unheard of,” he said.
The Congress, he said , accorded statehood to Telangana at an enormous cost , not to see the state in tatters. ” Telangana is a mess now. Farmers suicides are all around. Government is not able to extend any help. Daily a dozen farmers are killing themselves cheated by their own government. Financial in discipline ruling roost. On one side there are no funds to help people , on the other, CM spends huge money on luxurious foreign trips, splurging in the name Telangana culture and invites tenders worth Rs 40,000 crore for water grid project,” he said demanding a white paper on the status state finances.
Government, instead of demanding special packages, should first place the facts and figures before the public and gain their confidence. He also said government should take all the parties into confidence to evolve a consensual approach to face the suicides, crisis in agriculture and paucity of funds.
