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Telangana launches Dalit scheme in budget, says state growth better than Centre
Telangana budget has earmarked ₹25,000 crore for agriculture sector spending, including ₹1,200 crore for Rythu Bima scheme, ₹1,500 crore for farm mechanisation incentives and ₹14,800 crore for Rythu Bandhu direct cash transfer scheme among others.
Telangana introduced a Dalit empowerment scheme in the state budget tabled on Thursday, while setting aside ₹1,000 crore for the programme. The state finance minister also claimed that Telangana’s growth figures were better than the national gross domestic product (GDP) since the state prevented any adverse impact of Coronavirus on the rural economy.
“As compared to the national GDP growth, the State’s GSDP (gross state domestic product) growth is much better. We have been able to prevent any adverse impact of Coronavirus on the rural economy. The improvements in power supply, increase in irrigated area as a result of new projects and implementation of many development and welfare schemes, helped improve the growth rate,” state finance minister T Harish Rao claimed while presenting the budget.
The minister said the state spent ₹5,761 crore on development of gram panchayats in the last one year and was bridging the gap in funding to local bodies, created by the 15th Finance Commission’s decision to cut ₹699 crore allocation to Telangana. “An amount of ₹29,271 crore is proposed in the 2020-21 budget for Panchayati Raj and Rural development departments,” Rao said.
Speaking on the Chief Minister’s Dalit Empowerment Programme, Rao said it was aimed at all-round development of the Scheduled Castes in the state, however, its modalities remained to be worked out.
Rao said the GSDP declined significantly from 13.5% in 2019-20 to 1.3% in 2020-21 as compared to the national GDP decline from 7.8% to -3.8% in the same period.
He said ₹25,000 crore will be earmarked for agriculture sector spending, including ₹1,200 crore for Rythu Bima scheme, ₹1,500 crore for incentivising farm mechanisation, ₹14,800 crore for Rythu Bandhu (direct cash transfer of ₹10,000 per acre per year to each farmer), ₹5,225 crore towards waiver of crop loans up to ₹1 lakh.
Apart from this, ₹16,931 crore has been allocated for the irrigation sector in the state budget this year. The minister said Kaleshwaram project on Godavari river was almost finished, while Sitarama project was nearing completion. “Similarly, works of Palamuru - Rangareddy lift irrigation project, Dindi lift, Sammakka Sagarare and other lift schemes were also going on at a brisk pace,” he said.
He also allocated ₹800 crore for constituency development fund, translating into ₹5 crore grant to each MLA and MLC for taking up developmental works in their respective constituencies.
Rao also explained how the state government was trying to overhaul the revenue administration by introducing ‘Dharani’ portal for recording of all land transactions and digitalised land surveys to streamline the land records. “An amount of ₹400 crore is proposed in Budget Estimates 2021-22 for comprehensive land surveys,” he said.
The minister also announced ₹2,750 crore for Kalyan Lakshmi/Shadi Mubarak scheme, ₹21,306.85 crore as special component for SCs, ₹12,304.23 crore as special component for STs, ₹338 crore for weavers’ welfare, ₹5,522 crore for backward classes (BC) welfare and ₹1,600 crore for minorities’ welfare.
The other major budgetary allocations are: ₹1,702 crore for women and child welfare; ₹11,000 crore for double-bedroom housing scheme; ₹6,295 crore for medical and health; ₹4,000 crore for new education scheme aimed at providing basic facilities in government schools; ₹11,046 crore for electricity sector; ₹750 crore for land acquisition towards regional ring road approved by the Centre.
The total budget outlay was ₹2.30 lakh crore, with a projected revenue surplus of ₹6,743 crore and the estimated fiscal deficit was ₹45,509.60 crore, said Rao.
