Telangana back step on Agriculture Budget

Hyderabad, Mar 5: The Telangana State government has withdrawn its plans to introduce a special budget for agriculture along with the State budget for the fiscal year 2018-19.

The reason is being attributed to the Constitutional guidelines and the State Legislative Assembly rules which prohibit the introduction of department-wise separate budgets.

However, Chief Minister K Chandrashekhar Rao declared that agriculture should be given priority in the State Budget scheduled to be introduced during the Assembly budget session proposed to begin from March 12.

He wanted the officials concerned to incorporate all the new schemes and provisions proposed for agriculture department in the State budget to give a clear indication to farmers and fill confidence among them.

Agriculture has been on the priority list of the Telangana government since the State formation in 2014. With proposal to launch more government schemes including capital incentive for welfare of farmers during the current fiscal, the State government planned to present a separate budget for agriculture.