Telangana Assembly Winter Session: Blame game between Congress and BRS over State debts

Hyderabad: The Congress and the opposition BRS on Thursday indulged in a heated debate in the Telangana Assembly over the state’s debt burden, with the ruling party accusing the previous regime of pushing the state into a financial crisis and the latter refuting the claims.

After the Question Hour, Speaker Gaddam Prasad Kumar permitted Deputy Chief Minister Bhatti Vikramarka to make a statement on the state’s finances.

On December 16, the BRS urged the Speaker to allow a privilege motion against Bhatti for allegedly presenting misleading data on the state's debt.

In his statement, Bhatti said that the Congress government is implementing welfare measures while rectifying the "financial mess" left by the previous BRS administration. Referring to a "White Paper" on state finances released earlier, he stated that Telangana faces a debt of over Rs 7 lakh crore, including Rs 40,000 crore in pending bills.

Countering these figures, former Finance Minister and senior BRS leader Harish Rao said the actual debt when the BRS left power was Rs 4.17 lakh crore only, while the Congress government has raised Rs 1.27 lakh crore in just one year.

Responding to Rao, Bhatti asserted that the government repaid Rs 1.18 lakh crore, including principal and interest, within a year. He also alleged that the previous BRS regime provided misleading information to the RBI regarding government guarantees for loans taken by various corporations.

"We have resolved the financial mess created by the BRS government and ensured salaries for 3.69 lakh employees and pensions for 2.88 lakh beneficiaries are paid on the first of every month," Bhatti said.

AIMIM floor leader Akbaruddin Owaisi and BJP floor leader A Maheshwar Reddy criticised the treasury benches for taking up issues not communicated to members in advance.

Legislative Affairs Minister Sridhar Babu acknowledged a possible communication gap on the matter.

Inputs from PTI