Finance Minister Anam Ramanarayana Reddy claimed his budget as welfare-oriented and allocation of funds under SC, ST sub-plan has been increased and BC Welfare and minority welfare was given utmost priority.

Lashing out at the Anam’s budget, the opposition parties termed it as ‘listless’ and the allocations were made without knowledge on the real problems of the people and vital sectors like power, irrigation, industry and handlooms were totally ignored.

The budget would promote economic crisis than welfare, said former Finance minister and TDP senior leader Yenamala Ramakrishnudu. He asked finance Minister Anam Ramanarayana Reddy to clarify how he would manage the fiscal deficit. The State would accumulate its debts to the tune of Rs 2 lakh crore in the years to come, Yenamala said.

The budget presented by Anam Ramnarayana Reddy was like an action plan not like budget, YSRCP leader Sobha Nagireddy said. She said the Government misguided the Assembly by presenting the agriculture budget. Former finance minister and TDP senior leader Ashok Gajapathi Raju said the Government cut down the allocations for crucial power sector.

Lok Satta president Jayaprakash Narayana wondered how the Government reduced the figures of students in the Government schools. He said the students studying in the Government schools had been shown as 80 lakhs in the last year budget, now it was mentioned as 70 lakhs. The Government made huge promises for power sector, but the allocation was just Rs 600 crore. Because of the lopsided policies, the Government was spending Rs 7,000 crore towards the losses in the power sector, he said and added that the budget failed to focus on the future requirements.

BJP MLA Yennam Srinivasa Reddy said the Government made the allocation without having knowledge on the people’s problems. The budget served no purpose for irrigation, power and industrial sectors. The finance minister ignored the priorities of the State, he lamented.

TRS leader Eetela Rajender termed the budget as ‘budget of Chittoor’, the home district of Chief Minister N Kiran Kumar Reddy. He said the finance minister Anam made an attempt to take away the funds to Chittoor district. Allocation of funds for agriculture was meager despite the increasing suicides of farmers in the State. The Government was not prepared to release even Rs 100 crore for fluoride-affected areas of Nalgonda district, Eetela said.

It was all jugglery of numbers in the budget, but the industry was totally ignored, said APK Reddy, FAPCIA leader. The small and medium scale industries were left untouched in the budget, he said. The budget made no attempt to rescue the handloom sector in the budget, opined handloom societies’ association.

-Sakshipost