No separate agri budget in Telangana

The Telangana government today dropped its idea to introduce a separate budget for agriculture for the financial year 2018-19.
The reason for deciding not to present a separate agriculture budget is the absence of provision for "separate department-wise budget in the Constitution", a release from the Chief Minister's office said.
The legislative procedures also do not permit a separate budget for any department, it said.
Chief Minister K Chandrasekhar Rao, who held a meeting with officials on budget-related issues, said the state government has been giving top priority for agriculture.
Sufficient funds are going to be allocated in the budget for agriculture to take up more schemes for farmers, the release said.

The state government had earlier decided to introduce a separate agriculture budget as farming has been a top priority area for it, it said.
The officials said in the meeting that the "entire state budget should be one" and that the Constitutional guidelines would not allow separate budgets for the departments, stated the release.