Hyderabad: The Telangana government’s severe fund crunch has forced the Cabinet, which met at Pragathi Bhavan on Saturday under the chairmanship of Chief Minister K. Chandrashekar Rao, to postpone a decision on releasing funds for Rythu Bandhu and Dalit Bandhu this month.
The Cabinet was supposed to take a decision on releasing funds for Rythu Bandhu for the ongoing rabi season, as well as for Dalit Bandhu to extend the scheme to 500 more beneficiaries in each of the 118 Assembly constituencies, with the exception of Huzurabad where funds were released to cover all 20,000 Dalit families.
The government must mobilise Rs 7,500 crore for Rythu Bandhu and Rs 5,900 crore for Dalit Bandhu. On December 5, the Chief Minister’s Office (CMO) had issued an official note that stated, “The State Cabinet will meet at Pragathi Bhavan on December 10. The Cabinet is likely to discuss release of Rythu Bandhu funds, implementation of Dalit Bandhu etc.” However, the official note issued by the CMO following the Cabinet meeting on Saturday made no mention of the release of funds for Rythu Bandhu and Dalit Bandhu.
According to official sources, the Cabinet did not discuss the issue after finance department officials informed that it would not be possible to mobilise funds for the two schemes this month.
For more than two months, over 75 lakh farmers have awaited Rythu Bandhu funds for the rabi season, which began on October 1. Farmers are in dire need of funds to cover the costs of seeds, fertilisers, labour, and other inputs during the rabi season.
On November 24, the CM announced that the government suffered a revenue loss of Rs 40,000 crore in fiscal 2022-23 due to restrictions imposed by the BJP-led government at the Centre on market borrowings and off-budget borrowings, and he called for a special Assembly session for a week in December to discuss the issue.
However, the session could not begin because the CM was preoccupied with the launch of BRS on December 10. Even this week, the session would be impossible to hold because the CM will arrive in Delhi on Monday to inaugurate the BRS national office in Delhi on December 14 and is expected to camp in Delhi for a week to focus on expanding BRS activities to other states.
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