‘PM Narendra Modi borrowed Rs 80 lakh crore in 8 years’: TRS' BIG claim

KT Rama Rao claimed that after independence, during 67 years, the country borrowed Rs. 55.87 crores, but during Modi's rule, the debt is of Rs 80 lakh crore in eight years

Image courtesy: ANI

Hyderabad: The ruling TRS in Telangana on Saturday, October 29, 2022, accused the BJP of 'pushing' the country into a debt trap with borrowings of the central government allegedly touching 61.6 per cent of the GDP by 2021. Releasing his party's political charge sheet against BJP, TRS Working President and Minister KT Rama Rao, along with party leaders accused the saffron party of leaving people in the lurch with ever-increasing petrol and diesel prices, among others.

“After the independence, during the 67 years of various Prime Ministers' rule, the country borrowed Rs 55.87 crore. After coming to power in 2014, the borrowings by (Prime Minister Narendra Modi) Modi alone in these eight years was Rs 80 lakh crore,” Rama Rao claimed. 

The interest payments by the Centre during 2014-15 were 36.1 per cent of the revenues while it has gone up to 43.7 per cent during 2021. Despite NITI Aayog's recommendation of Rs 19,000 crore in funding for Mission Bhagiratha, a safe drinking water project for every village in the State, the Modi-led government did not even give 19 paise, the charge sheet alleged. 

Fluoride and Fluorosis Mitigation Centre, which was supposed to be set up in Choutuppal, was driven away to some other state, it further alleged. It also charged the NDA government at the Centre with 'pushing' the handloom sector into an existential crisis by imposing five per cent GST on handloom products and planning to increase it to 12 per cent. 

The charge sheet also claimed that the Centre was 'blackmailing' states in the name of additional loans by forcing them to fix meters to the agriculture pump set. The NDA government at also meted out injustice to the Scheduled Tribes of Telangana by not clearing the ST Reservation Bill even after five years, it added.