Union Budget again shortchanges Telangana: KTR questions Congress-BJP role and failure to secure funds for the state

Hyderabad (Telangana) [India], February 1 (ANI): BRS Working President K.T. Rama Rao (KTR) launched a sharp attack on the Union Government, alleging that Telangana has once again been denied its rightful share in the latest Union Budget. He accused the BJP-led Centre of continuing a discriminatory approach towards the State for more than a decade and questioned the Congress-led State Government's inability to secure even minimal allocations.
KTR said Chief Minister Revanth Reddy's repeated visits to New Delhi--nearly 60 so far--had yielded "not a single rupee" for Telangana. He demanded that the Chief Minister explain to the people what concrete benefits accrued to the State from these trips. The BRS leader remarked that the much-publicised "big brother-little brother" understanding between Congress and the BJP had completely failed to translate into financial gains for Telangana, as evidenced by the current Budget.
Alleging that the Chief Minister's Delhi visits were driven by political compulsions rather than the State's interests, KTR said the Budget had exposed the "total futility" of those engagements. He maintained that Telangana had been left empty-handed while other States continued to receive substantial allocations.
Turning his criticism towards the BJP leadership, KTR said even the party's own MPs and Union Ministers from Telangana had failed to raise their voices in Parliament for the State. He pointed out that despite having representation in the Union Cabinet, Telangana did not receive any meaningful allocations, which, he said, reflected the Centre's continued neglect since the formation of the State.
KTR recalled that successive representations over the last ten years for key projects had gone unaddressed.
He said that these included national status for the Palamuru-Ranga Reddy irrigation project, Metro Rail expansion, the Regional Ring Road, new railway lines, a coach factory at Warangal, the establishment of premier educational institutions such as IIM, the Bayyaram steel plant in Khammam district, and a mega textile park in Sircilla. "None of these long-pending demands found place in the current Budget," he said.
He further stated that Telangana had been systematically overlooked ever since its formation, including in the implementation of commitments made under the Andhra Pradesh Reorganisation Act. The continued absence of Central support, he argued, demonstrated a pattern of discrimination rather than an isolated lapse.
The BRS leader demanded that Congress and BJP MPs from Telangana, Union Ministers, and the State Government collectively answer to the people for what he termed a "serious injustice" in the Budget. Observing that neighbouring States were receiving substantial Central assistance year after year, KTR said the contrast was not lost on the public.
KTR asserted that the latest Budget once again proved that national parties were unwilling or unable to safeguard Telangana's interests. He called upon Chief Minister Revanth Reddy, BJP Union Ministers, and MPs from both Congress and the BJP to issue a public apology for failing to secure funds for the State.
He also criticised the Telangana BJP leadership for what he described as a lack of assertiveness in Parliament, noting that despite sending an equal number of MPs from Congress and the BJP, the State had "ended up with zero" in terms of tangible Budgetary benefits.
Concluding his remarks, KTR said the people of Telangana had clearly understood the consequences of not having a strong regional voice in the Lok Sabha. Only a party rooted in the State could effectively raise Telangana's concerns in New Delhi, he said, adding that the latest Budget had once again underlined the importance of having such representation to ensure both strength and visibility for the State at the national level. (ANI)