Book case against me if you have guts: KTR

Hyderabad: Municipal Administration and Urban Development Minister KT Rama Rao on Tuesday challenged a union Minister from the city, whom he did not name, to get the city police to book a case against him instead of bringing pressure on them to book cases against engineers and other staff of the Greater Hyderabad Municipal Corporation who were laying new roads to ease traffic congestion in IDPL area in the city.

“If you have the guts, book cases against me as I am the Municipal Administration Minister and the State government, but don’t stall development works,” Rama Rao said, adding that the new roads being laid in the IDPL area were a long-pending demand of the residents.

Launching a scathing attack against the BJP government at the Centre for its discrimination towards Telangana, the Minister demanded that the Central government to stop creating hurdles in Telangana’s development and if possible, extend support to the youngest State of the country.

The State government, he said, has been appealing to the Central government to allot defence lands in the Secunderabad area for the construction of skyways but there was no response. The State BJP leaders should prevail upon the Central government and get the defence lands allotted to take up development works, he said, adding: “I assure that Hyderabad will be transformed into a city with the best infrastructure in the country.”

Speaking after inaugurating the Khaitlapur Road over Bridge here, Rama Rao said BJP’s top brass including Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Home Minister Amit Shah would be in the city next week to participate in party meetings. “The Prime Minister laid foundation stones for projects worth Rs 20,000 crore in Gujarat. Similarly, he had also announced mega projects in other cities but there is no clarity on such assurances as the Prime Minister failed to fulfil most of his promises,” the Minister said.
The Modi government, which supported Gujarat with Rs 1,000 crore, did not extend any help when Hyderabad was hit by heavy rains last October, he said, pointing out that not even Rs 1,000 was released for Telangana. Slamming the Centre for its discrimination towards Telangana, he sought to know what the BJP leaders would do in Hyderabad when no help or support was extended by the Central government to Telangana.

The Minister said the BJP government had assured Ram Rajya but had only ended up unveiling the horrors of Ravana’s rule. BJP was instigating communal differences and creating unrest in the country to cover up its failures, especially in providing employment and economic development, he charged.

The BJP government has shattered the aspirations of youth in the country who were keen on joining the Armed Forces when it introduced the controversial Agnipath scheme, he said. Ridiculing the statement made by the same union Minister from the city that Agnipath would ensure a bright future for the youngsters by training them as barbers, washermen, drivers and electricians, Rama Rao asked: “Do the youth want to join the armed forces for these things?”

The Minister reminded how the promise of eradicating black money within 50 days of demonetisation went kaput and the same was the case with the promise of depositing Rs 15 lakh in bank accounts. “Did anyone get the promised Rs 15 lakh deposited in his or her bank account?” Rama Rao asked the gathering, stating that right from youth to households, all sections were a worried lot under the BJP rule.