The State Cabinet on Sunday approved the Budget estimates for the financial year 2017-18 to be placed before the State Legislature on Monday. Chief Minister K. Chandrashekar Rao presided over the meeting.
Sources said it will essentially be a welfare budget with adequate allocations for weaker sections targeted in the State government-sponsored welfare programmes without ignoring priority sectors like agriculture, irrigation and power.
Finance Minister Etela Rajender said the Budget will reflect the poor man’s aspirations and meet the expectations of the deprived classes and weaker sections as envisaged by Chief Minister K. Chandrashekar Rao. The Budget has been prepared in a manner which offers the much needed assistance to the downtrodden and encourage community-based professions to develop, besides giving priority to agriculture and irrigation sectors, he said.
Social Inclusion
The Finance Minister said that irrigation projects will be fast-tracked for early completion and necessary allocations would be made to meet the requirements. The power sector will get Rs. 5,000 crore towards subsidy, he said adding that it will also offer a thrust to artisans and community-based professions as part of the government’s vision for social inclusion.
The TRS government has been focusing on inclusive growth and all-round development and allocations will be made accordingly to various sectors with focus on welfare, he stated.
Rajender said priority areas would be addressed in the Budget in line with the Chief Minister’s vision of ensuring basic amenities like land, housing and other benefits for the downtrodden and weaker sections.
Based on the Chief Minister’s objective to encourage community-based professions, fishermen, Yadavas and artisans will get required allocations in the Budget for their development, he said. To provide better education to Scheduled Castes, Schedule Tribes, Backward Classes and Muslim Minorities, the government has come up with separate residential schools to offer best quality education on a par with corporate educational institutions, he said.
Flagship Schemes
Rajender said the government’s flagship programmes – Mission Bhagiratha and Mission Kakatiya — will also get sufficient allocations, as also agriculture, education, health, roads, IT, Industries and infrastructure.
Stating that people in villages were happy as the lake restoration scheme of Mission Kakatiya was yielding positive results, the minister said with most of the targeted lakes, water bodies, reservoirs and ponds filled to capacity, villagers were getting back to their work of cultivation, fishing and other avocations. Mission Bhagiratha will also be a success in the near future providing potable water and internet connectivity simultaneously all over the State which will end the hardship faced by women and girls fetching drinking water from distant places. For these two schemes, the government is spending huge amounts, he said.
According to informed sources, Rajender is to present the Budget for 2017-18 fiscal with proposals of about Rs. 1.40 lakh crore to Rs. 1.50 lakh crore, compared to Rs. 1.30 lakh crore last year.
Source: Telangana Today