CPI MLA Kunamneni Sambasiva Rao criticises Telangana Budget; says only 8% allocated to education, health gets 4%

Hyderabad (Telangana) [India], March 21 (ANI): The Communist Party of India (CPI) MLA Kunamneni Sambasiva Rao criticised the Telangana Budget presented in the Assembly, calling it a "mixed budget" with no newness and alleging that priority sectors like education and health have not been given importance.
Speaking to ANI on Friday, the CPI MLA said the budget has not allocated adequate funds for education and health and demanded proper allocation for the sectors.
"That budget, it is nothing. We call it a mixed budget because there's no newness. Last year, what kind of figures they have given. They just inflated the figures. If we go into the deep, education is not given priority. General demand is 20 per cent of the budget must be given for education, whereas these people allocated only 8 per cent. Health, also, at least 10 per cent must be given; these people have given only 4 per cent. So that way, priority sectors are not given proper importance," Sambasiva Rao said.
The CPI MLA also questioned how the government would fill its fiscal deficit gap.
"Also, the fiscal deficit of this budget is Rs 58 crore; altogether, how to fill that gap, they themselves should know. So that's why we call it mixed budget," he added.
The criticism from the CPI MLA comes even as the Telangana government has announced several measures in the budget, including the extension of the mid-day meal scheme to intermediate students and the allocation of Rs 83,772.66 crore to the education department.
He further expressed that he wishes that discussions over the next few days will lead to rectifications and modifications in the budget, ensuring that priority sectors receive proper consideration.
The budget has also drawn criticism from the opposition Bharat Rashtra Samithi (BRS), with party working president KT Rama Rao earlier slamming the state government, alleging that Congress has no intention of fulfilling its promises.
BRS Working President KT Rama Rao slammed the Telangana government, alleging that it has failed to fulfil its poll promises, as party leaders staged a protest near Gunpark demanding implementation of the six guarantees on Friday.
Speaking to ANI, KTR said, "This is a hopeless government. I am saying this because the Congress govt had promised to deliver six guarantees, but this is the third budget now. Therefore, after seeing three budgets and there is only one more budget remaining, the last year's budget is an election budget. I am clear that the Congress has no intention of fulfilling its promises. Not a single promise has been kept by this government, and we don't believe that they will do anything differently in this budget as well."
Telangana Deputy Chief Minister and Finance Minister Bhatti Vikramarka on Friday presented the state budget for 2026-27 in the state assembly, proposing a total outlay of ₹3,24,234 crore. The budget estimates a ₹2,34,406 crore towards revenue expenditure and ₹47,267 crore for capital expenditure, focused on welfare, infrastructure, and rural development. (ANI)