Hyderabad: Telangana is trying to cater to the real and most immediate requirements of the state by providing huge allocation to the most neglected sector. With agriculture being the backbone of Indian economy, Telangana State this year, has allocated the biggest amount for Agriculture sector. And when compared to other states of India, no state can be compared with Telangana for the amount allocated.
From the total budget, it allocated a whopping 10.9 percent for agriculture and its related activities. When this is compared to the allocations by other states for the same sector, the average allocation percentage comes out to be 6.4 % for the fiscal 2018-19. And the previous allocations of Telangana for the fiscal 2016-17 and 2017-18, it was 5.9 per cent of the total budget.
New Delhi based PRS Legislative Research has published analysis for the budget and its estimates for Agriculture and Cooperation department are that it jumped by a percentage of 117 for fiscal 2018-19 when compared to the last year allocation in the State Assembly. The figures for the budget expenditure incurred by TS State for agriculture and cooperation was about Rs 5,764 crore in 2016-17 and Rs 5,919 crore in 2017-18 and this time for the fiscal 2018-19, it has allocated a whopping Rs 12,845 crore.
PRS Legislative Research is an independent research institute based in the city of New Delhi, compared budget allocations of different 19 major States in the country to different sectors for 2018-19.
And according to the budget analysis conducted by Telangana State, irrigation and command area development department and other departments like Rural Development and Panchayati Raj, Education, Agriculture and cooperation and Municipal Administration and Urban Development, get a stake of 62 per cent of the grand total budgeted estimates of Telangana in 2018-19.
For other sectors like tribal welfare and municipal administration and urban development, the increase is about 37 percent and 35 percent respectively when compared to fiscal 2017-18 fiscal allocation. The figures for the same are as 8,063 crore for tribal welfare and Rs 7,251 crore for municipal administration and urban development
The state fixed 14.3 percent as allocation for irrigation which is much higher when compared to average budget estimate of 4.9 percent for 18 other states. But this can be termed as marginally lower than the share of allocation for irrigation expenditure in 2017-18, which is at 15.2 percent.
And for other sectors like health, 4.7 percent was allocated for this fiscal and when compared from earlier fiscal, it comes out to be marginally lower than the average estimates of 4.8 percent by other states. But it has increased from 4.3 to 4.7 percent for this fiscal of 2018-19.
If summed up, the total expenditure for 2018-19 fiscal is estimated to be around Rs 1,74,454 crore which is a gradual 22 per cent increase over the revised estimates of 2017-18. In 2017-18, there was a decrease of Rs 7,140 crore (5 per cent) in the expenditure over the other budget estimates. In 2016-17, the expenditure was a bit 3 per cent more than the budgeted expenditure.