Bharat Rashtra Samithi (BRS) Working President K. T. Rama Rao said on Tuesday that Telangana has once again got a raw deal in the Union Budget.
Reacting to the Budget 2024-25, he said they hoped that Telugu daughter-in-law Nirmala Sitharaman would allocate significant funds to Telangana but the state got nothing.
“Despite having a budget of more than Rs 48 lakh crore, only a few states received major benefits. It is disappointing that Telangana is not mentioned in the entire budget,” KTR, as Rama Rao is popularly known, said, adding that the people of Telangana should think about what happened when they gave 16 seats to national parties like BJP and Congress.
“They should look at the funds allocated to Andhra Pradesh and Bihar, which have more seats in parliament, and compare it to the Telangana regional force. We need to understand that our political identity and strength is crucial for Telangana’s development,” said KTR, whose party drew a blank in recent Lok Sabha elections.
The BRS leader said BJP and Congress MPs sitting in Parliament did not speak a word on behalf of Telangana.
“If there were MPs from our party in Parliament, they would have strongly opposed the Central government’s stance,” he said.
Telangana’s people will certainly teach a lesson to the BJP government for giving zero funds despite having 8 MPs, he added.
On the special schemes announced for Andhra Pradesh, KTR said they have no issue with the funds given to Andhra Pradesh.
“As a brotherly state, we wish them well and support their allocations. However, the Central government did not mention the word ‘Telangana’ even once when discussing the Andhra Pradesh Reorganisation Act. The Centre announced special funds for the capital Amaravati, Polavaram, and industrial development. It also promised special funds for Andhra Pradesh industrial corridors. We are happy with the significant funds given to Andhra Pradesh. But it is truly disappointing to see that only Andhra Pradesh and Bihar received funds while the remaining 26 states were overlooked.”
He recalled that in the past, BRS chief K. Chandrashekar Rao had requested the Central government to take decisions on nearly 35 promises made under the Andhra Pradesh Reorganisation Act and the then BRS government repeatedly wrote letters and made appeals.
“Despite our requests, national status has not been granted to any irrigation projects in the state. We requested central institutes such as IIM, but not a single one was given. There was no mention of additional funds for Mulugu University, the Bayyaram Steel Factory, or the Railway Coach Factory in Kazipet. We asked for funds for industrial corridors from Telangana to Mumbai-Nagpur, and Hyderabad-Bengaluru, Hyderabad-Chennai, but there was no response. We also requested the establishment of a new handloom cluster along with a mega power loom cluster, but the Central government did not respond.”
KTR pointed out that even the requests made by the present Chief Minister and Ministers from Telangana during their visits to Delhi were ignored.