On one hand, KCR and his team are promising the sky and the moon to Telangana people and announcing populist schemes and projects running into crores.
But talk from within is that the state is running out of funds at an alarming rate.
Though KCR has announced various big schemes and projects, the treasury hasn’t been making enough money to fulfill all or at least a few of them.
Now, the situation is such that KCR is forced to acknowledge that the state has lost out on its revenues following bifurcation.
The latest news is that the Telangana government is sitting on bills running up to Rs 2300 crores. While it has bills pending up to Rs 1500 crores in irrigation sector, it needs to shell out another Rs 500 crores for R&D works. Similarly, there is another Rs 200 crores under the Panchayati Raj department. So, the contractors are making it clear that they cannot continue with works as the government is yet to clear huge debts.
However, it has to be understood that there were similar problems in erstwhile united Andhra Pradesh. But at that time, timely and strong decisions were taken and the issue would be resolved tactfully.
Now, there is no clarity regarding the situation post bifurcation. Also, the T government hasn’t held the budget session, so the finance department is in a tight spot in terms of releasing funds.
Meanwhile, various departments are sending in bills running into crores. Already the government has allocated Rs 4250 crores for loan waivers and it has allocated another Rs 100 crores for purchase of electricity.
Naturally, the government is finding it difficult to handle the situation.
