South States Getting the Short Shrift in Devolutions: KR Suresh Reddy
Suresh said there was a large number of people from Telangana in the Gulf countries and urged the government to have a Saudi Arabia consulate opened in Hyderabad.
Hyderabad: The BRS on Tuesday called on the Centre to call for an all-party meeting to discuss devolutions to the states pointing out that southern states get far less than what they contribute to the national kitty.
BRS parliamentary party leader K.R. Suresh Reddy, speaking on the Union Budget in the Rajya Sabha, said that for every one rupee that the southern states contributed to the Centre, they get far less than several of their northern counterparts.
“Karnataka gets 15 paise for every rupee it sends, Tamil Nadu gets 29 paise, Telangana 43 paise, Kerala 59 paise, while Bihar gets Rs 7 back for every rupee it sends to the Centre while Uttar Pradesh gets Rs 2.73. A sense of injustice being done to the states in the south is widespread and the Centre must hold a meeting with all parties to discuss devolution before it issues guidelines to the Finance Commission on this issue,” Suresh Reddy said.
He said there was a large number of people from Telangana in the Gulf countries and urged the government to have a Saudi Arabia consulate opened in Hyderabad. Suresh Reddy also suggested that the Pravasi Bharatiya Bima Yojana of the Centre include natural death in the insurance scheme and not limit it to accidental deaths of Indians who have gone abroad for employment.
Recalling Union finance minister Nirmala Sitharaman invoking the famous Telugu poet Gurajada Apparao’s words that a country is not just its soil but its people, Suresh Reddy said the relief to the middle classes in the Budget was welcome. What is needed was to get the 60 per cent rural families engaged in agricultural activities into the middle class of the country’s population.
Suresh Reddy said 80 crore people getting free ration, and the number expected to grow to around 100 crore when the next census is done, does not speak well of a country on the path to progress after 75 years of independence. He also said the Centre should take the initiative for desilting of dams in the country to make better use of the dams, and also use the silt for improving soil quality in farmland.