KCR reduced revenue-surplus T’gana into revenue-deficit state: Sitharaman

Hyderabad: Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman on Tuesday alleged that Telangana Chief Minister K. Chandrasekhar Rao has reduced “revenue-surplus Telangana into revenue-deficit state” in the last 10 years.

Stating that Telangana has fallen into a debt-trap, she said coming two to three generations will have to repay the debts.

She said this while interacting with retired defence employees and their families in the Meet and Greet programme in Malkajgiri constituency in Hyderabad as part of BJP’s election campaign.

She said the state government has levied taxes on canteen stores department for defence service personnel.

“I was shocked to learn that 125 per cent taxes have been levied by the state government,” she said.

Sitharaman said Telangana is one of the states opposing the proposal to bring petrol, diesel and liquor under GST.

The BJP leader said that KCR got a gold-like state in his hands in 2014 but instead of taking it ahead on the path of progress, he used it for his own family and own party. She said money meant for the public was used for other purposes and the development was forgotten.

She recalled that at the time of formation Telangana was a revenue-rich state. It had enough money and it had enough resources.

“At the time of division Hyderabad was at the doorstep of receiving good investment which is happening now,” she said but added that the KCR government can’t claim that the investment is coming because of it.

Later, addressing a news conference, Sitharaman said the pillars of the Kaleshwaram project, which was described as a prestigious project for Telangana, were collapsing.

She said KCR had promised that after coming to power he would make a Dalit Telangana’s first chief minister but he did not keep his word.

She said a Dalit leader T. Rajaiah was made the Deputy Chief Minister but he was sacked within six months.

The union minister said the state government announced an allocation of Rs 3,300 crore for the development of backward classes but spent only Rs 77 crore.

She said 2,000 posts in 11 universities of Telangana were vacant. She claimed that there are one lakh vacancies in the state government department.

Sitharaman said KCR also failed to fulfil his promise of paying unemployment allowance.

She said Telangana’s literacy rate is 66 per cent against the national average of 72 per cent.

This is less than the literacy rate of half of the country, she added.