Governance of Congress and BJP forced me to form BRS: CM KCR

CM KCR said despite availability of abundant natural resources, the Congress and the BJP could not cater to the basic needs of the people of the nation

Hyderabad: Chief Minister K Chandrashekhar Rao said on Sunday that he was forced to form the Bharat Rashtra Samithi and venture into national politics after getting vexed with the governance of both the Congress and the BJP. Both these parties had failed the people of the country over decades and preferred to cater to their political goals rather than addressing issues plaguing the country.

“Despite availability of abundant natural resources, the Congress and the BJP could not cater to the basic needs of the people of the nation. Without a farmer-friendly government at the Centre, this nation cannot progress,” he said, raising his slogan of “Ab ki Baar, Kisan Sarkar”.

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Replying to the discussion on the State budget in the Assembly, the BRS President explained about what prompted him to form the BRS. India had nearly 50 percent of its land fertile enough for cultivation. The country’s rivers had nearly 70,000 TMC of water of which only 21,000 TMC were being utilised. Similarly, despite availability of nearly 361 billion tonnes of coal reserves required to supply electricity to the nation for 125 years, India was importing coal.

“We have a concrete plan to address two major issues – water and power supply, which are plaguing the country for decades. We will supply water to every acre and drinking water to every household within four-five years. We will ensure uninterrupted power to all within two-three years,” he added.

Reacting to the Opposition’s remarks over his assurance to supply water from Sri Ram Sagar project to Maharashtra, the Chief Minister said he was an Indian first before being the son of Telangana and that he wanted the country develop on the lines of Telangana. He said the Babri Masjid issue was a meagre one compared to over 2,000 TMC water from Godavari River was going waste into the sea.

He felt that States could not trust the Centre to address the inter-State river water disputes and 20-year delay in finalising Telangana’s share in Krishna River water was a classic example. “If the Chief Ministers of all the stakeholder States are willing, I am ready to resolve all inter-State disputes across the table. We have done it with Maharashtra and completed the Kaleshwaram project successfully,” he said.

On recent disruptions in power supply in the State, Chandrashekhar attributed it to a technical problem in transmission lines due to increased power consumption in the State. He said the issue was resolved and there would be no power cuts even if the load goes upto 16,000 MW.

Following requests from MLAs, the Chief Minister announced that the State government completed construction of 650 checkdams in first phase and will soon take up second phase of checkdams for which budgetory allocations have been made. In response to issues raised by BJP MLA Eatala Rajender, he announced that the diet charges of University students will be revised shortly. He instructed the Ministers to take note of the issues raised by Rajender and resolve them.