Rao hails Telangana Budget; Opposition not happy

Expressing satisfaction over the first full-fledged Budget presented in the Assembly today, Telangana Chief Minister K Chandrasekhar Rao said the proposed allocations would lead to implementation of the promises made in his party's manifesto.
The Budget has achieved balance by making appropriate allocations to different sectors, he said in a release here.
Though the programmes like farmers' debt relief, students tuition fees reimbursement, revised salaries of employees, social security pensions caused a burden, the Budget has rightly given priority to water grid, revival of tanks and roads upgradation, he said.
Meanwhile, the main Opposition Congress, TDP and BJP expressed dissatisfaction over the Budget.

Deputy leader of Congress in Legislative Council Mohammed Ali Shabbir described the Budget as "unrealistic".
The figure of Rs 1,15,689 crore (Budget size) sounds good, but it is away from reality, he claimed. "The Government presented a similar budget of Rs 1,00,637 crore for fiscal 2014-15. But it did not spent even 50 per cent of the total allocations. The figure of more than Rs 1 lakh crore is being used only to mislead the people."

BJP floor leader in the Assembly K Laxman faulted the TRS Government over the remarks that funds from Centre did not come as per expectations.

"The Chief Minister himself says Telangana is a rich State and Central funds may not come much because funds are given to backward states. Here they say that Central funds have not come as expected. This is self-contradictory."
TDP floor leader in the Assembly E Dayakar Rao alleged that the Budget did not address farmers' problems like fall in Minimum Support Price (MSP) and prevailing drought conditions.
Finance Minister E Rajender proposed a total expenditure of Rs 1,15,689 crore for FY 2015-16, of which the non-plan expenditure is estimated at Rs 63,306 crore and plan expenditure at Rs 52,383 crore.