CHENNAI: Deputy leader of Opposition K. Duraimurugan on Thursday charged that the state government had mismanaged the economy leading to rising deficit and mounting debt burden and said the budget would not be useful for the people. Speaking on the budget discussion, he cited the example of Uttar Pradesh and Maharashtra which had high fiscal deficit which had been reduced by the state government through various financial measures.

He said the state government’s revenue had come down as land registrations had decreased and revenue on sale of cement and steel had also decreased due to lack of development in the state. He also questioned why the government had not taken over granite quarrying. Duraimurugan said the debt burden was going on increasing and had reached Rs 2.52 lakh crore. After the implementation of the seventh pay commission and payment of debts for Tangedco, the debt would mount to Rs 4 lakh crore, he predicted. He also accused the government of not spending the allocated amount for key departments like education and Adi Dravidar welfare.

He said the government which announced wavier of crop loans taken from the co-operative societies had not disbursed the full amount of Rs 5,780 crore to the banks and asked how the banks would waive the loans when the entire amount was not given by the state government. State co-operative minister Sellur K. Raju who intervened said the health of co-operative societies was good and their deposits had doubled in the AIADMK government. The government would give the co-operative societies the funds required for crop loan waiver gradually and recalled that the same method was adopted by the DMK government too when it waived crop loans in 2006.

State finance minister O. Panneerselvam said the government had also sanctioned Rs 6,000 crore for the co-operative societies and their functioning would not be affected by the gradual payment of loan waiver amount.