(Special Correspondent)
Hyderabad: The state budget president on Monday presented by the Finance Minister T Harish Rao in the state Legislative Assembly, has a budget of Rs 2,90,396 crore for 2023-24, up from about Rs 2.57 lakh crore last year with welfare programs getting a lion’s share of allocation. Finance Minister allotted Rs 2,11,685 crore towards Revenue Expenditure and Rs 37,525 crore for Capital Expenditure. This budget was the last one tabled by the BRS government in its present (second) term.
The state government’s flagship Dalit welfare scheme ‘Dalit Bandhu’, a brainchild of Chief Minister K Chandrasekhar Rao, was allocated Rs 17,700 crore. The scheme provides financial assistance of Rs 10 lakh per beneficiary to take up any business of their choice.The budget proposed an amount of Rs 36,750 crore as Special Development Fund for Scheduled Castes, while the Medical and Health department got Rs 12,161 crore. An amount of Rs 12,000 crore has been proposed for ‘Aasara’ social security pensions, while Rs 15,233 crore was proposed in the budget as Special Development Fund for Scheduled Tribes.
The budget proposed Rs 6,229 crore for the welfare of backward classes. The allocation for the Panchayat Raj department in the budget was Rs 31,426 crore, while it was Rs 26,885 crore for the irrigation sector. The amounts proposed in the budget for the Agriculture and Education departments were Rs 26,831 crore and Rs 19,093 crore respectively. Providing statistics, Harish Rao said Telangana’s share in the country’s GDP grew to 4.9 percent in 2020-21 from 4.1 percent in 2014-15.
The per capita income of Telangana is estimated to increase from Rs 1,12,162 in 2013-14 to Rs 3,17,115 in 2022-23, he said. Harish Rao, who alleged that the Centre created hurdles to the development of Telangana, said the Centre unilaterally imposed a cut of Rs 15,033 crore in Rs 53,970 crore included in the budget as borrowings.
