‘Slowdown hurts, we will find new revenue avenues’

The Telangana government has said it will ‘stick its neck out’ and pursue fiscal discipline, due to the prevailing economic scenario. It said it will scout for new avenues to augment revenue to continue the programmes and schemes.

“The economic challenges in the country had an impact on Telangana too. Yet, due to strong administrative policies and fiscal discipline, the State was able to withstand the situation,” Telangana Governor Tamilisai Soundararajan said.

Addressing the Budget session of the Assembly here on Friday, she, however, said that the State did well while other States were showing decline in economic growth.

She said a new Revenue Act is being contemplated to eradicate corruption and red-tape. “We are getting ready with a new Land Administration and Management Policy too,” she said.

She started her speech by throwing light on the sad state of affairs in the region before the formation of the Telangana in 2014.

“The Telangana society was destroyed in all the sectors. The farm sector was pushed into a crisis. The situation was so pathetic that thousands of farmers used to commit suicides,” she said.

Stating that the K Chandrashekar Government turned around the situation by taking up irrigation projects and farm assistance schemes (Rythu Bandhu and Rythu Bima) to help them increase acreage and buy inputs ahead of the Kharif and Rabi seasons.

The power situation too was bleak before the formation State with the industry, farm sector and consumers suffering from frequent power outages.

She said the State achieved a turn around story in the power sector too. Telangana tops in the per capita power consumption in the country. “While the peak demand for power in the united Andhra Pradesh was 13,162 MW, Telangana now clocked an all-time high peak demand of 13,168 MW. Now we are able to provide uninterrupted supply,” she said.

The installed capacity, which was at 7,778 MW at the time of the formation of the State, went up to 16,246 MW.

Increase in irrigation facilities helped the State more than double the paddy area to 38.19 lakh acres from the average of 17 lakh acres in the rabi season.

She said the Government will change the nomenclature of Rythu Samanvaya Samithis to Rythu Bandhu Samithis, which will help farmers from the sowing season to the post-harvest marketing season to ensure supportive prices.

“We will come out with an action plan soon,” she added.

Referring to the Basti Davakhanas (Mohalla Clinics) set up in the urban localities, she said the government will open 350 more clinics, at least two such clinics in every Division.

The TS-iPass, the single window policy for clearining new industrial projects, has attracted investments worth ₹2.04 lakh crore so far and created 14 lakh additional jobs.

She said the IT exports from the State went up to ₹1.09 lakh crore in 2018-19, registering a growth of 16.89 per cent against the national growth average of 8.9 per cent.