Hyderabad: Telangana state Panchayat Raj minister KT Rama Rao on Saturday blamed the Centre for reducing the funds earmarked for the Centrally- sponsored programmes in the state.

Intervening in a discussion on the budget, the minister said that it was not proper on the part of BJP floor leader K Laxman to claim that the Centre’s decision to increase the devolution of share in the Central taxes had helped the states in getting more funds. KTR said the Centre had given more share with one hand and had  withdrawn help by scrapping many of the Centrally-funded schemes by the other hand.  He said the Union government has scrapped Backward Region Grant Fund (BGRF) and Rajiv Gandhi Panchayat Sashaktikaran Abhiyan ( RGPSA )  implemented by the sate Panchayat Raj department from this year. The allocations for ICDS (Integrated Child Development scheme ) and Sarva Siksha Abhiyan (SSA) have  been reduced forcing the State government to shell out more money to continue the welfare schemes.

He also said that the Telangana government pleaded with the Centre to allow the state to get more funds under FRBM ( Fiscal Responsibility and Budget Management ) act by amending the existing provisions in the act in view of increasing financial burden .  The TRS government was making all-out efforts to get the Centre’s nod , the minister said and sought the cooperation of  all leaders for the  successful implementation of the schemes including its flagship water grid project.

Later, the BJP floor leader said  the decisions taken by the Chief Minister K Chandrasekhar Rao seem dragging the state into Appula ( debt ridden) Telangana’  and the ambition to turn the state as   ‘Bangaru (golden) Telangana’ would remain a pipe dream.  Laxman said the allocations under non plan budget which crossed beyond 50 per cent would be a negative indicator to the state’s growth. Meagre allocations for education , housing and other welfare schemes would not help to fulfil the promises made by the TRS, he said.