The Telangana government would implement its election promise of providing unemployment dole in another four-five months after working out the modalities, Chief Minister K Chandrasekhar Rao said Monday.
"I had said in election meetings also. Unemployment dole. Who is unemployed? That needs to be defined. For that definition, we have told officials. It needs to be defined. We need to settle that (data) village-wise, mandal-wise, constituency-wise, district-wise," he said in the Assembly.
The data and calculation needs to be fool-proof to avoid misappropriation of funds, he said.
Citing an example, he said if the dole is given to those in the age group of 18-35, the assistance needs to be stopped once an individual attains the age of 36.
"Since public fund should not be misappropriated like that, it will take time. We don't want to tell lies like that. I had said in election meetings that it will take minimum four-five months. In another four-five months, after doing all this in a fool-proof manner, we will bring it under implementation," Rao said.
He was responding to Leader of Opposition (Congress) M Bhatti Vikramarka's comments that presenting a vote-on-account budget impacted the implementation of schemes.
More From This Section
Rao said his government has made allocations in the vote-on-account budget for promises and other schemes, including increase in social security pensions, hike in assistance under "Rythu Bandhu" investment support scheme for farmers, double bed room houses for poor and farm loan waiver.
The government sought to present budget for six months in order to understand the priorities of the new government to be formed at the Centre after the Lok Sabha elections and to plug leakages and put an end to irregularities going on in the state (in various spheres).
Dismissing Vikramarka's remarks that it did not yield water though the government took up redesigning of irrigation projects and increased their budget, Rao said the projects envisaged by the previous Congress regimes were not effective as they proposed relatively less area under irrigation.
Minor irrigation in Telangana was destroyed during the previous Congress regimes, he alleged.
The TRS government put the responsibility for maintenance of projects for longer periods on contractors who undertake their construction, he said.
The government has not taken any decision on imposing charges for water supplied under the Mission Bhagiratha, he said.
On Vikramarka expressing concern on rising debts, Rao reiterated that debts were needed for undertaking development works and "leveraging the economy."
The loans taken by the government are within permissible limits and as per the norms, he said.
The government is moving towards addressing disputes on lands and putting them on a website which would have updated details on land ownership, he said.
Alleging that weaker section housing undertaken during the previous Congress regimes had been defective, he said the government would take data from village-level functionaries on how many needed housing.
Asserting that the state government would work without compromise in public interest and also undertake reforms, he said complaints about irregularities in voters' lists have been reported routinely.
There was no answer when he sought to know why such things happened though it was bureaucrats who headed the election commission and also oversaw election process at the district level which had no interference of MPs or MLAs.
Congress leaders also alleged about irregularities in voters' lists recently, he said.
Though Congress leaders claimed to have taken up land records updation annually when the party was in power, it did not yield desired results, Rao added.
The House passed the appropriation bills after the end of the debate.
Disclaimer: No Business Standard Journalist was involved in creation of this content
