HYDERABAD: Accusing the Chief Minister K. Chandrashekar Rao-led BRS government in Telangana state of being involved in mother of all double-accounting scams and diversion of Central funds for different malafide purposes, BJP Nizamabad MP Arvind Dharmapuri said on Thursday that the Telangana state government must explain how exactly it spent Rs 5,221 crore of Central government funds.
These funds were provided to Telangana state for infrastructure development by the Centre in the form of an interest-free 50 years soft loan, the BJP said at a presser on Thursday.
“There is enough evidence that the KCR government has diverted and misused these funds for various works and projects. Then, the BRS showed these projects as their own and paid for them from state funds,” Nizamabad MP Arvind Dharmapuri said.
Displaying documentary evidence for the last three financial years on how the Centre’s soft loan funds were misused by the state, Arvind said that he had written to Union finance minister Nirmala Sitaraman for a thorough probe into the issue.
He said that the BJP government at the Centre does not insist on credit being given on inauguration plaques, boards and plaques among other credits for itself when these funds are deployed by the state.
Using this as an excuse, the state has been claiming credit for funds using them for various other projects, Arvind alleged.
These soft loan funds are being used for every medical college, every hospital being built, in addition to many road works. Even a Kaleshwaram tourism circuit project was created using these funds. Rs 100 crore was spent under Mission Bhagiratha to supply drinking water in Hyderabad. Yet, BRS leaders lie and say the Centre is not giving any funds.
“The state has been using Central money claiming them to be their own investments. If the state says hundreds of works listed as using loan amounts are actually funded by state income, then it must explain what it did with the Rs 5,221 crore central loan,” Arvind said.
