Yes, it’s family rule; people of Telangana our family: KTR takes on Opposition in Assembly

He shot back at Akbaruddin, asking him why he was speaking on irrelevant subjects and snatching one hour of Assembly time.

“If the leader of AIMIM, which has seven members, speaks for one hour, how many hours should we speak as we are 105 in the House?” he quipped and advised him not to let his emotions get the better of him.

KTR urged him to give constructive suggestions and not speak vaguely that there was no government in the state and that no minister was accessible.

Live : Minister @KTRBRS speaking as part of discussion on Motion of Thanks to Governor's Address https://t.co/tuhdK0x1YR

— KTR, Former Minister (@MinisterKTR) February 4, 2023

List of initiatives

Responding to the saffron party’s allegation that KCR’s contribution to Telangana is suspect, the Industries Minister said that no one can separate KCR from Telangana.

Under KCR’s leadership, Telangana was on the fast lane to progress, he said.

“No one can stop this ‘Progress Express’,” he said, while listing the initiatives taken by the BRS government in addressing the wants of all sections of people.

“When Delhi is praising Telangana, the BJP leaders in gullies are criticising us,” he charged.

Calling the bluff that the BRS government was not bothering about employees, he said that the relationship between the party and its employees was pegu bandham, meaning that both of them are biologically inseparable.

The retirement age of Singareni workers had been raised to 61 years and even though the Centre had not scrapped ITIR, the growth of the state had not been hampered, he said.

Of the four lakh jobs created in the entire country, one-third of them are in Telangana, he stated.

Also Read: India will be a $15 trillion economy if it has a leader like KCR: KTR 

Progress made by BRS

Referring to the discriminatory attitude of the Centre, KTR said that the Centre had allocated just ₹2,000 crore for Telangana in the ₹45 lakh crore budget at a time when Telangana gave the Centre, in the form of taxes, ₹4.27 lakh core since its formation in 2014.

He also pointed out that the state had made commendable progress in the medical and health sectors.

“Four super-specialty hospitals are coming up in all four directions of Hyderabad. The government was committed to ensuring that there would be one medical college in every district, despite the fact that the Centre had not allotted even one medical or nursing college,” he stated.

The minister stated that the agriculture sector had undergone a radical transformation and reached a stage where it was now feeding the country, rather than being dependent on it.

Drinking water and power supply problems have become a thing of the past and on all parameters of the economy, Telangana has become a role model for others to emulate, he added.

What of Old City?

Earlier, AIMIM leader Akbaruddin Owaisi took the BRS government to the cleaners for neglecting the Old City. He quipped that he was prepared to meet anyone, even a chaprasi, if he was assured of the development of the Old City.

Live: AIMIM Floor leader Akbaruddin Owaisi speaking on Governor's address in Telangana Assembly #TelanganaAssembly #TelanganaBudget2023 https://t.co/WBSsCVAZ19

— AIMIM (@aimim_national) February 4, 2023

“All development works go on without any hindrance in Hitec City but in Old city, nothing moves,” he said and pointed out that a stadium was promised for Old City 10 years ago, but it has not yet been completed.

“When would the metro rails reach the Old City? In last year’s budget, there was an allocation of ₹500 crore. When would Charminar pedestrianisation happen?” he questioned.

Akbaruddin raised doubt as to why the state was not critical of the BJP’s step-motherly attitude in the Governor’s address.

He also wondered what validity the Governor’s address had at a time when the budget session was not called, since the Governor’s address was included in the session that was a continuation of the previous session.

“The chief minister and others were very vocal about the injustice done to the state earlier, but in the Governor’s address, there was not even a murmur of protest,” he said.

Also Read: Dissolve Parliament, announce midterm election, KTR dares BJP

Congress’s charge

Congress member D Sridhar Babu said that KTR had dished out a bundle of lies in his reply, but he worded them so well that they sounded like music to the ears.

The officials were robbing the farmers in weighing their paddy at procurement centres by removing eight kg of paddy as waste. He said, contrary to the observations of KTR, there was distress in the farming sector and as many as 107 farmers had died by suicide, unable to wriggle out of the tight coils of debt.

Though about 7,000 procurement centres had been set up, there was no relief to the farmers as staff are resorting to irregularities, he stated.

The Congress member tried to take the wind out of the sails of the government by saying that its flagship project, the Kaleshwaram Lift irrigation Scheme, had not benefitted the farmers. Let the government say how much additional ayacut — the area served by an irrigation project — has been created by the Kaleshwaram scheme, he said.

He also touched the government’s raw nerve by asking when would it provide unemployment allowance to the 26 lakh youth in the state.

BAC’s decisions

The following are the decisions taken by the Business Advisory Committee (BAC), as announced by KCR:

• The state budget would be presented on 6 February in the Assembly.
• Debate on the budget to begin on 8 February and the government would give its reply to the debate.
• Debate on demands to be held from 9 to 11 February.
• The Appropriation Bill will be passed on 12 February.