Congress always supports destruction and opposes developments: KTR

KT Rama Rao stated that it had become a habit of the Congress to oppose any reforms brought by the BRS government

Hyderabad: A war of words broke out between Industries Minister KT Rama Rao and Congress member D Sridhar Babu over the Dharani portal issue in the State Assembly on Thursday.

Taking part in the Budget discussion, Sridhar Babu alleged that there were a lot of shortcomings in the Dharani portal and that the government should immediately scrap it as it was causing hardships to the people. Rama Rao strongly objected to Sridhar Babu’s remarks, and pointed out that so far, over 23.9 lakh documents were uploaded in the portal without any problem and people are happy that they were able to resolve all issues related to land and properties within a few minutes.

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“The Congress now wants it to be scrapped. What kind of mindset is this?” he asked, stating that it had become a habit of the Congress to oppose any reforms brought by the BRS government.

“Congress always supports destruction and opposes developments. They have a president who wants Pragati Bhavan to be blasted with grenades. Here is a member who wants the Dharani portal to be scrapped. We want the Congress to clarify their stand on Dharani portal and Pragati Bhavan’s destruction,” he said, adding that TPCC chief A Revanth Reddy was using RTI to blackmail the government.

The argument did not stop at that and Sridhar Babu alleged that the State government purchased lands from farmers for setting up the Pharma City at Rs 8 lakh per acre and sold them to corporate houses at Rs 1.8 crore per acre. An enraged Rama Rao challenged Sridhar Babu to prove his allegation or to tender an unconditional apology to the government for making false allegations. “If you have proof, place it before the government. Do not make false allegations. We will not take it lightly,” he said.

The Minister said the government had not sold a single yard of land to anyone so far and the Congress member was accusing it of indulging in malpractices. He requested Speaker Pocharam Srinivas Reddy to either ask Sridhar Babu to withdraw his remarks or expunge it from the Assembly record. However, Sridhar Babu instead of withdrawing his remarks, just said, “I stand corrected if I am not right”. Following this, the Speaker ordered expunging of his remarks from the records.