Hyderabad: Chief Minister K. Chandrasekhar Rao on Saturday asked the Congress in the Assembly to look into the quality of the Budget and not into its quantity.
Countering Congress MLA Mr D. Sridhar Babu’s remarks that the TRS government had not produced a single MW of power after coming to power and also that the state government was issuing notices about power arrears to local bodies, the chief minister said the Congress member was telling a blatant lie.
Mr Rao said, so far, 3,600 MW of additional power were added to the state, which stood first in the country in per capita power consumption.
Referring to allegations of power notices to local bodies, Mr Rao said this was the result of anarchy encouraged during earlier Congress rule, as none of the local bodies had ever tried to pay power bills.
Mr Rao said the state government has enacted a new Panchayat Raj Act to strengthen local bodies and streamline its functioning.
Ruling out allegations about no mention of funds to gram panchayats, he said that in the coming months property tax in all gram panchayats would be revised and 100 per cent tax collected and all pending power bills would be cleared.
He assured the House about street lights being provided in every village and laying of roads.
Later, while replying to a discussion on the Budget, he refuted allegations made by the Congress with regard to loans.
He said lending agencies came forward to offer loans when the state has prudence and richest countries like the US, too, takes loans to run the government.
He said as Telangana has prudence, various corporations of the Centre had come forward to offer a Rs 15,000 loan to the state government.
Mr Rao felt there was a need to change the attitude of parties in power at the Centre. They should introspect and consider letting the state governments handle education, agriculture health and urban development.
