Telangana budget focuses on irrigation, to spend ₹26,000 cr.

Telangana Finance Minister Eatala Rajender recently presented a budget with an outlay of ₹1,30,415 crore for the financial year 2016-17 with bulk of allocations going for the irrigation sector. The budget size last year was ₹1,15,000 crore.

A little less than one-third of the planned expenditure of ₹67,631 crore has been allocated for the irrigation sector for spending on the government’s flagship programmes Mission Bhagiratha and Mission Kakatiya.

“We have allotted ₹26,657 crore for the sector that seeks to revive 46,000 tanks and provide drinking water to all households in 12 municipalities and 6,100 villages,” Rajender has said.

He said the government would seek Hudco loans to construct two lakh two-bedroom houses this financial year. The fiscal deficit is estimated to be at ₹23,467 crore, which is 3.5 per cent of the Gross State Domestic Product (GSDP).

HBL