Hyderabad: The Telangana government in its annual budget on Friday (March 20) announced free breakfast for all school going children, right from pre-primary level to senior secondary classes, while extending the existing mid-day meal programme in schools to include students studying in secondary and senior secondary classes as well.The twin programmes were allotted Rs 900 crore in the annual budget of Rs 3.24 lakh crore. The programmes will be fully-funded by the state government without any contribution from the Union government, Telangana principal secretary, finance, Sandeep Kumar Sultania told The Wire.The state government has proposed that the nutritious breakfast will include milk for three days and ragi malt for three days. Out of the total allocation of Rs 900 crore, around Rs 800 crore will be spent on breakfast while Rs 100 crore has been allocated for the extension of the mid-day meal scheme for children studying in intermediate classes.These initiatives were among nine new schemes announced by the government in what was largely seen as a desperate political compulsion to rebut criticism over its alleged failure to implement six guarantees that were the election promise of the ruling Congress.The six promises related to implementation of Mahalaxmi scheme of Rs 2,500 pension to women, cooking gas cylinders at Rs 500 and free bus ride, Rytu Bharosa scheme of investment support amounting to Rs 15,000 per annum per acre to farmers, Rs 12,000 per annum for agricultural labour and bonus of Rs 500 per quintal for paddy producing fine rice, Gruha Jyothi scheme of free power up to 200 units for all households, Indiramma housing scheme of house sites and Rs 5 lakh towards construction cost, youth development scheme of Rs 5 lakh payout for students to pursue higher education and ‘Cheyuta’ (handholding) scheme of Rs 4,000 social security pensions for old aged. Barring free bus ride to women and four instalments of input cost paid to farmers and partial implementation of the housing scheme, none of the guarantees are yet to take off.The government has allotted Rs. 50,713 crore for the six guarantees in this year’s budget which was marginally less than last year. Deputy chief minister and finance minister Mallu Bhatti Vikramarka read out details about the new schemes amidst sharp criticism from the opposition Bharat Rashtra Samithi (BRS) whose members attended the budget presentation with flowers stuck on their ears and tore the budget copies into shreds of paper while staging a walkout in protest over neglect of six guarantees.The major announcements made by the state government included the breakfast and extension of mid-day meal in the education sector and cashless treatment for government employees and their families in over 400 empanelled private hospitals.The mid-day meal scheme is expected to cover about two lakh new and two lakh students in 430 government junior colleges in addition to 62.36 lakh children in 40,000 schools under different managements. However, a substantial number of children in private unaided schools are still out of the scheme’s ambit. The breakfast programme is new for both schools and junior colleges.Teachers’ unions had repeatedly pushed for this programme in junior colleges after it was found that the students attended classes without carrying lunch boxes. The availability of food on campuses was also expected to bring changes inside classrooms and improve attendance beside pass percentage. In fact, as one college administrator said, regular meals will increase concentration of students across periods if they stayed throughout the day instead of leaving early for food.The minister noted that adolescence was a highly crucial stage of life and the nutrition received at this age determined their learning ability and life expectancy. The new initiative aims to improve nutrition and health outcomes, also easing the burden on working parents and reducing dropout rate and absenteeism.‘No child in Telangana should begin a school day on an empty stomach’“In simple words, no child in Telangana should begin a school day on an empty stomach. This is a watershed reform for student welfare”, said Vikramarka.He also announced that retrofitted motorised vehicles will be provided to differently abled students in government junior colleges following complaints that travel remained a barrier for many students.According to K. Srinivas, former editor of Andhra Jyothi Telugu daily, it is obvious that the government announced the new schemes to compensate for the failure in implementing the six guarantees. The Rytu Bharosa, in particular, which replaced the Rytu Bandhu of previous BRS government with enhanced payout had become a spoke in the wheel for the agriculture sector due to several conditions coming into force in Congress regime and delayed release. He also said the new schemes were aimed to address criticism that welfare was largely sidelined by the government.A round table meeting organised by the state committee of Communist Party of India (Marxist) (CPI (M)) here on Sunday (March 22) deliberated on the political compulsions of the state government to announce new schemes as part of its efforts to showcase the state as a rising economy under the brand name “Telangana Rising”.The government also organised a conclave of the same name recently with nearly two thousand foreign and pan India delegates to project the state as a three trillion dollar economy by 2017.Initiating the debate, the State secretary of CPI (M) John Wesley slammed the budget for lacking commitment to implement the six guarantees. He said the budget allocation for education was a mere 8.2% against the Congress’ election promise of 15%.The president of Telangana Jana Samiti M. Kodandaram said the government was pushed to go slow on its promises as the central devolution had declined considerably. Telangana got only 13 paise out of every rupee it contributed to the national pool. Outside the ambit of Goods and Services Tax, the devolution shrunk considerably after the Union government collected taxes in the form of cess and surcharges which could not be shared with state governments. As such, collections from excise, stamps and registration and motor vehicle tax remained the only main sources of revenue. Around 70% of taxes were thrust on the common public in this route to mop up resources, said Kodandaram.Kodandaram added that the poor central assistance impacted welfare programmes, forcing state governments to go for marketing borrowings within the Fiscal Responsibility and Budget Management (FRBM) restrictions. The Congress government has borrowed up to Rs 3 lakh crore in the last two years, mainly to service the loans taken in the BRS regime.The outstandings of the government will mount further, considering the retirement benefits of its staff which have remained unpaid, pending tuition fee reimbursement of students and unpaid bills of contractors when the BRS was voted out of power. The major challenge for the government to implement its promises is in this background of poor financial health.Economist D. Papa Rao said the State’s Own Tax Revenue (SOTR) went up nearly 265% in the last year of BRS rule in 2022-23 while it was a mere 60.23% in the current year of the Congress government. This was one reason to neglect its six guarantees.A demand to provide legal backing to the guarantees was ignored by the Congress, Rao said. He added that the inflation was high in the BRS period because people had money in their hands which enhanced their purchasing power. Now, the inflation went into minus which was a dangerous trend which showed people had no money to spend. He highlighted higher borrowings by the Congress than the BRS.G. Haragopal, retired professor of Hyderabad Central University said that as against budgets being instruments of social change in the past, budgets have now become instruments of social stability with no guarantees of implementation.