Telangana Congress President N Uttam Kumar Reddy demanded the resignation of Chief Minister K Chandrasekhar Rao, saying that he had lost the moral right to continue in his post as the Comptroller and Auditor General (CAG) had exposed the state government's flaws.
Speaking at a meeting in Warangal on Thursday, Uttam Kumar said, "Because of the wrong policies pursued by the CM, the state has a debt of Rs 2.65 lakh crore. The CAG report is a clear indication of the way the state government has been functioning for the last four years. It was proclaimed to be revenue surplus when the reality is that it is mired deep in debt. We have been telling this for the last four years. We raised it in Assembly several times but the government diverted the issue. The CAG report has exposed TRS government’s false claims of surplus budget and borrowings.”
The Congress also claimed that the CM had misled the Assembly and the people of the state, with fudged figures.
“By quoting manipulated figures, the state government managed to have the Fiscal Responsibility and Budget Management (FRBM) limit raised from 3% to 4.3 %. This is completely irresponsible. The Central government must prosecute the Chief Minister, the finance minister, the finance secretary, and financial advisors to the government under Section 409 of the IPC for committing criminal breaches of trust,” Uttam Kumar Reddy added.
The CAG, in a major revelation last month, said that the Telangana government had overstated its revenue surplus due to irregular accounting, adding that it was actually a revenue-deficit state.
This has given political ammunition to all opposition parties in the state.
Last week, the BJP lashed out at KCR saying that the CAG report was “a slap in the face” of the government.
“The TRS government stands exposed as all its flagship programmes — the irrigation projects, Mission Kakatiya, Mission Bhagiratha, T-Hub, TS-IPASS and so on. The government in a way has insulted the people of Telangana. It also mislead the Legislative Assembly by not tabling CAG reports before the Appropriation Bills were passed to prevent any discussion,” Telangana BJP chief K Laxman told reporters.