‘Union Budget has Ignored Telugu States’ Financial Pleas Across Sectors’

Hyderabad: The Union Budget 2021-22 came as a major disappointment for Telugu states, as numerous financial requests made by the governments of the two states remained unaddressed. Further, the Bharatiya Janata Party-led Central government has ignored the implementation of long-pending assurances made under the Andhra Pradesh Reorganisation Act, 2014.

“The Budget indicates that the Telugu states are not on the political radar of the BJP-led central government,” said political analyst Professor K Nageshwar Rao. “No major projects have been granted for Telangana and Andhra Pradesh. Further, the revised estimates of Budget 2020-21 indicate that the government failed to grant the allocated funds for Central and tribal universities in the two states,” he added.

Last year’s budget proposed Rs 8.3 crore for tribal universities in Andhra Pradesh and Telangana. Notably, the Centre revised the allocations for the two universities from Rs 8.3 crore in 2020-21 to Rs 4 crore in the revised estimates.

On Monday, YSR Congress MP Vijaya Sai Reddy slammed the Central government for “grave injustice” to Andhra Pradesh by not granting the special category status (SPS) to the state.

In 2014, the then Prime Minister Manmohan Singh had promised SPS for Andhra Pradesh for a period of five years.  But, “the BJP government had already clarified that it is not going to grant SPS for Andhra Pradesh,” said Andhra Pradesh former Chief Secretary IYR Krishna Rao.

The Telangana government had earlier appealed to the Central government to grant national status to the Kaleshwaram project but that request, too, remained ignored in the Budget.

Political observers pointed out that the Telangana Rashtra Samithi-led state government was also expecting an announcement on the establishment of Information Technology Investment Region (ITIR) in Hyderabad and a Railway Coach Factory in Kazipet, but drew a blank.

Nageshwar Rao also pointed out that  the “assurance made under the AP Reorganisation Act has been ignored yet again by the Central government.”

As per the AP Reorganisation Act, the Central government, through the Steel Authority of India Limited, was supposed to set up steel plants in Bayyaram of Telangana and Kadapa of Andhra Pradesh. The Act also assures development of Visakhapatnam-Chennai Industrial corridor, increasing railway connectivity in the two states and special funds for the development of backward districts. “There is no mention of these assurances in the Budget,” he added.

While Andhra is ignored, “the budget appears to be made particularly for the poll-bound states -- Tamil Nadu, Assam, West Bengal and Kerala,” said P Madhu, General Secretary of Andhra Pradesh Communist Party of India (Marxist).

“The long-pending demand of granting Railway Zone in Visakhapatnam is ignored, there is no mention of developing ports in the state or increasing the work days under the rural employment guarantee programme from 100 to 150 days,” said Madhu.

Polavaram Project

The Andhra Pradesh government had been requesting the Centre for direct funding for Polavaram irrigation project instead of  the current practice of funding through extra budgetary resource mobilisation by issuing government bonds. However, the Budget does not specify allocations of funds for the multi-purpose irrigation project. As per the Polavaram Project Revised Cost Committee recommendations, the project cost was pegged at Rs 55,656.87 crore. However, the Union finance ministry is yet to approve the revised cost.

Dip in Devolution of Central Taxes

As per the recommendations of the 15th Finance Commission, the share of Andhra Pradesh in devolution of Central taxes will decrease from the current 4.31% to 4.04% from 2021-22. For Telangana, the Central devolution will fall from 2.37% to 2.1%.