Hyderabad Sep 3 : In the midst of a scathing attack from Telangana Rashtra Samithi (TRS) for shaming district Collectors in Telangana, the Union Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman has defended herself, saying that her speech was not unparliamentary or offensive.She spoke to journalists on Saturday she believed she did not go beyond the boundaries of the parliamentary code of conduct when she questioned Kamareddy district Collectors regarding the percentage of the Centre and the state in the distribution of food items through the public distribution systems.
On a trip to Birkur village in Kamareddy district on Friday, the minister of state expressed her displeasure at district Collector Jitesh V.Patil for the reason that her flexis as Prime Minister were not displayed in a fair price.
Sitharaman was in the Zaheerabad Lok Sabha constituency as part of the BJP’s Lok Sabha Pravas Yojana.
TRS working president K.T.Rama said that he was disgusted by the unruly behavior of the union’s finance minister with the district magistrate/collector of Kamareddy.
Rama Rao complimented Jitesh Patil for his exemplary conduct.
“I do not evaluate the behavior of the Collector.As a representative of the people, I am entitled to raise questions.Let me know when there was anything offensive or disrespectful,” she said.
“As an elected representative of the people, I asked him a question.He was unable to provide an answer.
He went to the point of telling him that if he didn’t have a solution now then you could come with the answer in a half-hour,” she added.
“You are entitled to express this opinion, but as a representative of the people I have every right to inquire and to seek an answer.
If the language I use is offensive, you are entitled to speak up, but I haven’t strayed beyond the boundaries of the language of parliament,” she said
The minister from the central government has however described as snarky the claim made by the TRS leader that the Centre should display banners in every PDS shops in states ruled by BJP, thanking Telangana for its contributions.
“Since the beginning of time, our FM is constantly telling us that Modi Sarkar is the giver.
Let us look at the figures and facts.In every Rupee that Telangana contributes to the nation and we get 46 paise! Madam now is the is it time to hang an advertisement: “Thanks to Telangana in all BJP states’ PDS shops,” TRS leader KTR tweeted.
She was wondering if the arguments made by the TRS leader could be used within Telangana.
“Hyderabad contributes 55 percent of Telangana’s revenue.
Every project in Telangana will be able to benefit from Hyderabad’s contribution.If you are creating an project in Adilabad could you mention the name of Hyderabad MP or tax taxpayers of Hyderabad there?” she asked.
“If every state and individual starts to say that I have given this amount, show me back that amount.Taxation principle doesn’t apply to this situation,” she said
The finance minister described this behavior as’regressive and stated that this could be beneficial to rhetoric, for the media , and to raise the political heat but it’s also ‘disgusting’.
She confirmed that the TRS government was claiming the Central schemes as its own.
“If you need to borrow money to fund a project and then you use your name to refer to the samepurpose, we don’t have an objection, but you cannot alter the name of the Central scheme and refer to it your scheme,” she said.
Sitharaman said that once the Narendra Modi government introduced digitalization reforms the proportion of the Centre and states in the various programs will be evident.
She also denied the claims of the TRS of discrimination against Telangana in the devolution of Central taxes.
She stated that the devolution process is carried out in a monthly manner, as according to the formula developed by the Finance Commission.
“We cannot give more to one state and lesser for another state.The decision is not in our control.It’s all done according to the law,” he said.
She also denied the claim that states don’t receive any part in the revenue that are collected from the Centre.She said that the cesses collected on education, health, infrastructure go to states for roads, schools, and hospitals.
In response to a different question, she said during Covid-19 lockdown and pandemic during the lockdown, the Centre increased the borrowing limit of states from 3 percent to 5 percent with certain restrictions.
She however, stated that the terms were not shady but clearly designed to achieve certain goals of reforms.
ms/pgh
