Officials told KCR that the state recorded a growth of 15.3 percent despite a cut of 12.9 percent in funds from the Centre.
Published Aug 12, 2022 | 11:49 AM ⚊ Updated Aug 12, 2022 | 2:22 PM
KCR at the Cabinet meeting held at Pragati Bhavan, Hyderabad on 11 August (TelanganaCMO/Twitter)
Chief Minister K Chandrashekar Rao, presiding over a state cabinet meeting on the night of Thursday, 11 August, felt that despite the Centre’s unhelpful and discriminatory attitude, Telangana did very well on the economic front when the officials brought to his notice the cut the Centre had imposed on funds that were to be released to the state.
Though Telangana’s population is a mere 2.5 percent of India’s, it was contributing 5 percent to the nation’s economic growth, he noted.
Telangana also logged the highest revenue growth in the country, which stood at 11.5 percent.
Government officials are said to have apprised the chief minister that in the current financial year, the state has so far recorded a growth of 15.3 percent despite a cut of 12.9 percent in funds from the Union government under Centrally Sponsored Schemes (CSSes).
The officials said that had there been no restriction on borrowing under the Fiscal Responsibility and Budget Management Act (FRBM) limit, the growth rate could have been 22 percent.
They also brought to the chief minister’s notice the inordinate delay in the transfer of Central funds to the state due to the new system of the single nodal account.
The officials said that under the CSSes, the state received only ₹47,312 crore during the last eight years. But under Rythu Bandhu, Telangana helped farmers with ₹ 58,024 core during the last four years.
In the last financial year, the state’s expenditure was ₹1.84 lakh crore, of which the Centre’s contribution was only ₹52,000 crore, under the CSSes, which was less than 3 percent, the officials explained to the chief minister.
The Cabinet approved the request of ministers for the cancellation of the 21 August special session of the Telangana Assembly.
The chief minister took the decision after the ministers brought to his notice that a number of weddings were scheduled on that day.
The session was to be convened on the occasion of the diamond jubilee of Indian Independence, which had shot up the mercury in the local political barometer.
This was because it was feared that it would be yet another instance of a head-on collision between Governor Tamilisai Soundararajan and the state government, as the special session was proposed to be called as an extension of the previous budget session.
This way, KCR — whose relations with the governor have soured of late — could prevent her from addressing the session as it would not be a new session in this calendar year.
The practice is that the governor would address the first session of the Assembly in a calendar year.
The other decisions taken by the Cabinet included increasing the number of beneficiaries of the Aasara pension scheme, for the poorest of the poor, by 10 lakh from 15 August.
Though the chief minister had already announced an enhancement of the number of beneficiaries, it got the approval of the Cabinet on Thursday.
With the increase, the total number of pensioners would go up to 46 lakh in the state.
By another decision, the cabinet cleared a proposal to fill the vacancies for 111 Anganwadi teachers.
The cabinet also decided that there should be a mass rendition of the national anthem at 11.30 am on 16 August throughout the state.
The meeting also cleared several proposals relating to the medical and health departments.
It cleared the proposal to increase the number of posts of specialist doctors by 10 at the ENT Hospital in Koti, besides the construction of an ENT tower at the hospital.
The Cabinet also directed that the distribution of house-site pattas to the poor should be hastened.
It also constituted a committee to look into the problems people were facing in the construction of houses in grama kanthams. The committee is expected to submit its report to the government within a fortnight.
