The Jagan Mohan Reddy Government is doing great injustice to the downtrodden sections of society by diverting the Central funds released for the welfare and development of these sections, said former minister for Finance and TDP politburo member, Yanamala Ramakrishnudu, on Tuesday.
Ramakrishnudu said that the Central funds are being diverted by the State Government for corruption and wasteful expenditure thus doing injustice to the underprivileged sections of society. The State had to suffer a loss of thousands of crores in the past four years as the ruling dispensation has not released the matching grant for over 94 Centrally sponsored schemes affecting the development of the downtrodden sections, he said.
Chief Minister, Jagan Mohan Reddy, has been continuing his maladministration with his sole agenda of diverting the Central funds for farming to health sector and industry to irrigation sectors, Ramakrishnudu said. In four years, a whopping Rs 71,449 cr has been diverted within minutes of releasing these funds by the Centre thus resorting to large scale corruption and irregularities, he stated.
Except for selling government assets, imposing heavy financial burden on the people and raising loans at a heavy interest rate, Jagan is continuing his rule with no mention of development and welfare, the TDP politburo member observed. The people are falling victim to the conspiracies of Jagan who is keeping as a secret that several schemes for education and health sectors besides pensions are being implemented with the Central funds, he said.
The Centre has withheld release of Rs 6,000 cr as the Jagan Government did not mend its ways despite the Centre sending a letter raising objections to the inclusion of Jagan and YSR names in front of every government scheme, Yanamala said and felt that Jagan should take the responsibility for this. The Jagan Reddy Government is spending huge amounts of public funds for personal campaigning, he stated.
Observing that Jagan is squarely responsible for withholding of Rs 4,000 cr capital expenditure, Ramakrishnudu pointed out that the Chief Minister has diverted Rs 3,084 cr sanctioned by the Centre for building houses for the poor. On the one side the promise of building five lakh housing units per year has not been fulfilled and on the other the State Government is diverting the funds being released by the Centre for houses construction, he said.
Is it not a fact that the drought relief of Rs 900 cr released by the Centre is not distributed to the farmers, the former Finance minister asked. The Rs 8.60 cr funds allocated by the 14th and 15th Finance Commission for the development of the panchayats has been embezzled by misusing the digital key of the sarpanches, Ramakrsihnudu said in the press note.
Are the YSRCP seniors not aware that diverting the funds from panchayat accounts is illegal, the TDP politburo member asked and felt that all the panchayats got totally unnerved with the actions of the State Government. They reduced the condition of the panchayats wherein they are unable to pay even the drinking water and sanitation bills, he regretted.
The rural areas are no exception as the funds being released by the Centre for the villages development under the Employment Guarantee Scheme are also diverted thus doing great injustice to rural areas too, he felt. This has resulted in lakhs of people from different villages migrating to various places in the past four years as Rs 7,879 cr Central funds have been diverted, Ramakrishnudu noted.