Bhatti: Injustice to Telangana in Union Budget

Hyderabad: Deputy Chief Minister and Finance Minister Mallu Bhatti Vikramarka expressed strong disappointment over the Rs 53.47 lakh-crore Union Budget 2026-27, stating that Telangana had received no allocations. He described the omission as unjust and said the Budget reflected a negligent attitude towards the state despite sustained efforts by the Telangana government to secure Central support.

Addressing a media conference here on Sunday, Bhatti said Chief Minister A. Revanth Reddy, along with Cabinet ministers and Members of Parliament, had repeatedly met Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Union Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman, both individually and in groups, and submitted detailed representations seeking support for Telangana’s development.

The complete absence of allocations, he said, had caused deep disappointment among the people of the state. Bhatti said the state government would attempt to meet Prime Minister Modi and Finance Minister Sitharaman during the Budget Session and seek justice for Telangana. Bhatti appealed to Telangana MPs to jointly submit representations to the Prime Minister and the Union Finance Minister seeking fair allocations for the state.

Bhatti said Telangana had expected Central funding for several projects, including the Musi River rejuvenation, the Regional Ring Road, development of Hyderabad and Metro Rail expansion. He said it was particularly disheartening that the state had been ignored in sectors where it had proven strengths.

Bhatti said Telangana should have been the first choice whenever the Centre discussed investments in the biopharma sector, but this had not been done. He recalled the sterling work of the sector based out of Hyderabad during the Covid-19 pandemic.

He also questioned the exclusion of Telangana from the Rs 40,000-crore electronics sector allocations though Hyderabad had a strong electronics ecosystem, with institutions such as ECIL having been established during earlier Congress governments.

Bhatti said Telangana had also been ignored in sports, despite the state government placing special emphasis on the sector through global summits, the Telangana Rising Vision 2047 document and events featuring world-renowned athletes. He alleged that Hyderabad-centric activities under the Orange Economy had been shifted to Mumbai.

He pointed out that Telangana had been excluded from initiatives such as the Regional Medical Value Hub, even though Hyderabad was an emerging destination attracting patients from across India and abroad. The tourism sector, too, had been neglected though Telangana was home to the Unesco world heritage Ramappa Temple, rich forest reserves, waterfalls and major religious events.

Bhatti wanted the Centre to focus on Telangana in the area of rare earth minerals, as Singareni Collieries was engaged in processing scandium and lithium at Sathupalli and Ramagundam. He said requests for approval of a semiconductor unit, made personally by the Chief Minister and industries minister D. Sridhar Babu, had not found favour, while similar projects were sanctioned for other states.

Bhatti said the Budget did not adequately address the needs of the SC, ST and minorities communities, and alleged that the Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Scheme was being weakened, which would adversely affect the rural poor.

He said the Telangana government’s ambition of growing to a $3 trillion economy required strong foundational support from the Centre. Telangana had sought permission to raise its deficit to four per cent but had been denied through the Centre itself had fixed a deficit of 4.3 per cent.