I will soon clarify on central funds coming to TS: Kishan

HYDERABAD: Union minister G. Kishan Reddy on Saturday slammed IT minister K.T. Rama Rao for claiming that Telangana received far less funds than what it sent to the Centre every year.

Calling Rama Rao’s statement as “irresponsible,” Reddy said that the remarks were aimed at stoking conflict against the Centre.

Speaking to reporters after the state-level bankers committee meeting here, Reddy said that money spent by the state government in a particular constituency does not mean that all of those funds were generated from that area.

“Hyderabad is home to many national institutions and defence establishments, all of which are national assets. Crores are spent each year on them, details of which are not revealed. Does this mean that these are not in Telangana,” the minister said. “Very soon, I will present every single detail of how Central funds come to Telangana for various purposes.”

He said it was the state’s responsibility to ensure funds were used for the purposes for which they were designated. “The Telangana government should ensure funds meant for farmers and gram panchayats will actually reach them. It should attend to the farm loan waiver that was not implemented, leaving many farmers in the lurch,” he said.

Earlier, addressing a meeting of BJP booth committee workers, he took a dig at Rama Rao and said, “There was no need for dramatic comments of ‘I will resign if I am proved wrong’. The people will anyway send the BRS packing.”

He said that BJP party state president Bandi Sanjay Kumar was ready for a debate on the issue with Rama Rao.

Meanwhile, senior party leader N. Indrasena Reddy told reporters that Rama Rao’s allegations exposed his lack of understanding of how Central funding worked. The Modi government had raised the states' share of direct disbursements from 32 to 42 per cent. Then there were Central programmes and schemes such as Kisan Samman Nidhi, ration subsidy, and fertiliser subsidy, he said.

“To explain these to Rama Rao, the BJP does not need any senior leader. Our spokesperson Kishore Poreddy is enough to take on Rao’s irresponsible claims.”