KCR nails BJP chief’s lies

Hyderabad: Challenging the claims of BJP chief Amit Shah that the Centre had so far given Rs 1 lakh crore to the state, Chief Minister KCR said the official figures clearly indicate that the state government had contributed more to the Central kitty than what the state got from it.

Pointing out that the financial support the state had received from the Centre was less than 50 per cent of the state’s contribution to the Union government, the Chief Minister said given the ground reality, it was pathetic for Shah to make such allegations. “Shah also spoke of the Centre giving an additional Rs 20,000 crore annually to Telangana. Leave alone Rs 20,000 crore, I challenge him to show additional Central assistance of even Rs 2,000 crore,” he said.

The Chief Minister said that from June 2, 2014 to may 24, 2017, as part of tax devolution from the Centre, Telangana got Rs 37,773 crore. Under Centrally-sponsored schemes, it got Rs 18, 574 crore. The amount under national highways was Rs 2055 crore. Under the backward regions development fund, the state got Rs 1,016 crore.While the Centre gave three installments of this fund to Andhra Pradesh, Telangana got only two installments.

The funds given under the 14th Finance Commission was Rs 5,160 crore. Under NDRF, the state sought Rs 6,000 crore but got only Rs 855 crore. The dues under Central sales tax from the Centre was to the tune of Rs 12,147 crore but it got only Rs 1,958 crore. 

Under compulsory afforestation scheme, the state got only Rs 500 crore. The dues from the Centre as central sales tax is Rs 11,600 crore. As part of drought relief, the state had sought Rs 850 crore but it got only Rs 675 crore.The Chief Minister further said the funds given by the Centre for Asha scheme would be sufficient only to pay salary of Rs 1000-Rs 1500 but the state government was paying Rs 6,000 bearing the additional financial burden. Similarly, the state government was giving 38 lakh pensions spending about Rs 5,000 crore. But Amit Shah had said that no pensions were being given.

For the welfare of Dalits, the Chief Minister said, the government had allocated Rs 14,375 crore in 2017-18 budget.  He said while the Centre allocates only 3.93 per cent of its budget estimates for STs, the TS has allocated Rs 8,160 crore which is 15.1 per cent of the total budget. All this clearly nails the lies of Amit Shah, he added. It was the state which was making a hefty contribution to the Central kitty. “In 2016-17, the accruals from the state to the Centre including Income Tax, Service Tax, Customs Duty and others amounted to Rs 50,013 crore, while the Central assistance to the state during the year, including support to the welfare programmes, was only Rs 24,561 crore,” he said.