Looks like there is no end to the discrimination of the BJP-led union government against Telangana. Time and again the centre has shown its indifferent attitude be it in sanctioning medical colleges, national project status to irrigation projects or any central institutes. The BJP’s way of partisan politics has yet again become evident in sanctioning grant-in-aid to the state of Telangana.
The state finance department expected a grant-in-aid of Rs. 41,001 crores from the centre for the year 2022-2023. Out of which, Telangana had only received Rs. 13,087 crores, which is a meagre 31% of the budget estimates. On the contrary, Karnataka received 81% of its estimated grant-in-aid from the union government.
This is not the first time the centre imposed cuts in grant-in-aid; since 2014, the state government has received only 43% of the estimated grant-in-aid. Out of the estimated Rs. 2,02,947 crores, Telangana got only Rs. 88,106 crores. These figures establish the discrimination of the centre against a top-performing state like Telangana.
Not just in grant-in-aid, the BJP-led centre also exhibited its apathy in the devolution of the state’s share in the central taxes. In 2022-2023, the Telangana government expected to receive Rs. 18,000 crores from the union in the form of devolution but the centre crunched the number to Rs. 12,000 crores. Moreover, out of the Rs. 12,000 crores, only an amount of Rs. 11,750 crores was sanctioned.
Telangana CM KCR and other ministers made several requests to the centre to release the pending grants and funds. However, their repeated pleas fell on deaf ears.