The Telangana chief minister continued his attack on the BRS, and along expected grounds. The focus was on corruption and the economy.
Published Feb 27, 2024 | 8:00 AM ⚊ Updated Feb 27, 2024 | 8:00 AM
Telangana CM Revanth Reddy and BRS supremo KCR
Telangana Chief Minister A Revanth Reddy on Monday, 26 February, dared the BRS and the BJP for a debate on who had done better in delivering on promises made in their respective manifestoes.
“I am ready to call a special session of the Assembly if both the Opposition parties are ready. Let the BRS list out the promises that it had kept from its 2014 and 2018 manifestos,” he said.
“Similarly, let the BJP come out with details of how many promises that Prime Minister Narendra Modi made and how many were kept during the last 10 years,” added Revanth Reddy, who is also the chief of the Telangana Pradesh Congress Committee (TPCC).
The chief minister, branding the BRS and the BJP as two sides of the same coin, said they are always driven by selfish political interests rather than a zeal to work for the public welfare.
The chief minister gave an account of how Telangana, which had a surplus budget of ₹16,000 crore when BRS chief K Chandrashekar Rao became the chief minister in 2014, was now sitting on a mountain of debt.
“In 2014, the debt repayment per annum was ₹6,000 crore, but it has shot up to ₹70,000 crore per annum now,” he noted.
“The cumulative debt of the state was ₹72,000 crore then, but it is now a whopping ₹7 lakh crore. For debt serving alone, we are being forced to raise loans as the revenue receivables are only ₹1.3 lakh crore,” said Revanth Reddy.
The chief minister said that KCR had destroyed the state’s economy in 10 years so much that no one could do it even in 100 years.
Taking a sarcastic swipe at KCR, he said the former chief minister left the state in tatters using the wisdom that he had gained by reading 80,000 books.
He said the BRS’ four — KCR, son KT Rama Rao, daughter K Kavitha and nephew Harish Rao — were venting their angst over losing power without realising that no one in the party was subscribing to their line of thinking.
He said they did not seem to understand the leaders had serious differences over how they were leading the party.
Referring to the three emotive issues of the current Telangana movement — water, funds, and jobs — Revanth Reddy said as soon as the Congress came to power, it started to set the house in order in right earnest.
The previous government could not fill vacancies and abandoned the recruitment process for jobs that had been challenged in court, he said.
But, after the Congress came to power, it ensured that the legal obstacles were removed and the recruitment process picked up speed, added the chief minister.
He took a dig at Harish Rao for suggesting that water should be lifted to Annaram from Medigadda, whose piers had sunk. There was seepage at Annaram as well, he said.
“Is this the advice that Harish Rao should give? I think there is something seriously wrong with him,” said Revanth Reddy.
He said that the previous BRS government allowed Andhra Pradesh Chief Minister and YSRCP chief YS Jagan Mohan Reddy to divert the Krishna river’s waters — which essentially should belong to Telangana — to Rayalaseema.
“You invited Jagan to your residence, hosted a sumptuous lunch, and allowed him to take away Telangana water. Who has harmed Telangana?” he asked, addressing KCR without naming him.
The chief minister also accused the BRS of repeatedly claiming that the current government had failed in crediting Rythu Bandhu money to farmers’ accounts.
“I said in the Assembly very clearly that the Rythu Bandhu amount could disbursed up to October. We are trying to honour the Rythu Bandhu commitment by 31 March. If we have to clear the entire Rythu Bandhu subsidy now, we may not have money to pay salaries to government employees and pensions to the aged, and release funds for students in hostels,” the chief minister said.
Revanth Reddy, referring to welfare schemes, said that the government had made ration cards the criteria for extending benefits under welfare schemes.
“Identification of beneficiaries is a continuous process. We will issue fresh ration cards to the eligible beneficiaries so that they, too, can avail benefits of welfare schemes,” he said.
The chief minister also said that he had decided to start Ambedkar Knowlege Centres — one in every Assembly constituency — where poor students could avail the benefit of listening to the lectures of professors over the internet.
“We are fixing faculty members in Hyderabad who can give lectures for the students in rural areas from Praja Bhavan,” he said.
