Revanth Reddy said that the BRS which ruled the state for 10 years was targeting the Congress government which is hardly 10 months old.
Published Jul 31, 2024 | 7:14 PM ⚊ Updated Jul 31, 2024 | 7:14 PM
KTR and Revanth Reddy. (File pictures)
The discussion on the Telangana Appropriation Bill, 2024, in the state Assembly on Wednesday, 31 July, witnessed fireworks with Chief Minister A Revanth Reddy and BRS leader KT Rama Rao (KTR) locking in intense verbal duels for a very long time on the omissions and commissions of the previous and the incumbent governments.
The discussion on the Bill went smoothly for some time when KTR spoke at length detailing how the previous government had brought about all-around prosperity to the state.
At one point, KTR cast his doubt on the Musi Riverfront Development Project.
He said that when the BRS was in power, it had a proposal for its development with ₹16,000 crore and now its estimate had ballooned to ₹1.5 lakh crore.
“The Congress government has inflated the proposal to ₹1.5 lakh crore. Why did the estimate escalate so much? Let the government table the DPR in the Assembly,” he said.
He questioned why there were no allocations for the Rythu Bharosa scheme and enhanced social security pensions in the budget.
He dared Revanth Reddy and Deputy Chief Minister Mallu Bhatti Vikramarka to go to the City Central Library in Hyderabad along with him and find out if any of the students who prepared for competitive examinations there got a job after the Congress government took over.
“Even if one youth gives a positive answer, I am ready to renounce politics and organise a felicitation for both of them,” he said.
He wanted to know when the state government would return the lands taken from farmers for Pharma City since the project now stood scrapped.
Following the remarks, Revanth Reddy lashed out at KTR, asking him why he was trying to incite farmers by insisting on knowing when the lands were to be returned.
He took a swipe at the erstwhile BRS dispensation, wanting to know whether it was not true that on the first year of the implementation of the Bathukamma sarees scheme, benamis purchased sarees in Surat in huge amounts after taking hefty commissions and distributed them to women.
“The previous government did not give any work orders to handloom weavers as the BRS leaders were claiming,” he said.
He also wanted to know why the previous government did not allow the extension of the Multi-Modal Transport System (MMTS) trains to the airport when the Union government came forward.
“It is very essential that everyone should know the financial motive that the BRS had in refusing permission,” he said.
He made snide remarks at former chief minister K Chandrashekar Rao (KCR), albeit indirectly, that he (Revanth Reddy) had never said that he would convert the old city into Istanbul and change Hussian Sagar into a lake of coconut water, driving home the point that he was very practical in approaching any problem.
Revanth Reddy said that the BRS which ruled the state for 10 years was targeting the Congress government which is hardly 10 months old.
“Look at the plight of the stadia built for the Asian Games. On the contrary, we are trying to take the state on the road to development. We are trying to apply Artificial Intelligence (AI) to agriculture for better yield,” he said and described KTR as “100 percent artificial” and “zero percent intelligent.”
On another occasion, when BRS legislator P Sabitha Indra Reddy broke down while narrating how Revanth Reddy was targeting her, the chief minister gave a fitting reply to her accusation that even though she had wished him all the best when he joined the Congress (she was in Congress then), he was gunning for her.
The chief minister said that since Sabitha had brought up the conversation that took place between them in private, he too wanted the House to know that Sabitha after promising to help him win Parliament elections from Malkajgiri in 2019, joined the BRS, for the sake of a Cabinet berth, going back on her word.
Before Revanth Reddy spoke, Vikramarka lashed out at Sabitha for joining the BRS and becoming a part of the pink party’s conspiracy to ensure that the Congress did not have enough numbers for him to get the Opposition leader status.
Even though the Congress had named the Dalit leader the Congress Legislature Party leader, since Sabitha teamed up with other Congress MLAs who joined the BRS after her election to the Assembly in 2018, the grand old party lost the necessary strength to get the Opposition party status.
He wondered whether it was Sabitha who should feel hurt or the Congress.
“Ever since her entry into public life, Congress had been very generous to her. In 2004, she was made minister and it was repeated in 2009. For a decade she was not only a minister in Congress governments but also handled very important portfolios,” Vikramarka said.
In the 2014 Parliament elections, the Congress fielded Sabitha’s son Karthik Reddy from Chevella (he lost the election). What else does Congress have to do for her? Yet, after winning from Maheshwaram on a Congress ticket in 2018, she joined the BRS.
Earlier, intervening in the discussion, Revanth Reddy hit out at KTR for picking holes in the budget. The chief minister said that his government proposed Mucherla in Ranga Reddy district as the next major destination for investments.
“It would be the future Hyderabad and it is where infrastructure would be developed for attracting investments. It would be the fourth city to be developed after Hyderabad, Secunderabad and Cyberabad,” he said adding that there would be metro connectivity to Mucherla and all other facilities required for the city to flourish.
(Edited by Muhammed Fazil)
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