Harish Rao lashes out at BJP

Hyderabad: Countering BJP’s claims that people were yearning for ‘Double Engine’ governance in Telangana, the ruling TRS said the BJP’s agenda was to only usurp power rather than fulfilling its promises made to the people. Lashing out at the BJP’s Vijay Sankalpa Sabha held here on Sunday, Finance Minister T Harish Rao charged that Prime […]

Hyderabad: Countering BJP’s claims that people were yearning for ‘Double Engine’ governance in Telangana, the ruling TRS said the BJP’s agenda was to only usurp power rather than fulfilling its promises made to the people.

Lashing out at the BJP’s Vijay Sankalpa Sabha held here on Sunday, Finance Minister T Harish Rao charged that Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s speech was mere rhetoric and lacked vision or any policy for Telangana’s growth and welfare.

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“As said by Opposition parties’ Presidential candidate Yashwant Sinha, the Prime Minister did not answer any issue raised by Telangana people” said Harish Rao at a press conference here on Monday.

Save for boasting about “Double Engine” governance, the Chief Ministers of 18 States, who participated in the meeting, did not utter a word about the progress and achievements in respective States, he said, adding “Their only agenda was coming to power in Telangana”

Reacting sharply to the Prime Minister’s claims that Central Government had extended support for construction of irrigation projects, the Minister said since last eight years Telangana Government has been appealing to address the River Krishna water sharing disputes but there was no response.

Interestingly, projects in neighbouring Andhra Pradesh and Karnataka were accorded national status but Palamuru Rangareddy Lift Irrigation and Kaleshwaram did not get such support, he pointed out.

Making light of the BJP leaders claim over the party’s role in separate Telangana agitation, he said it was TRS leaders, who had fought for the State formation and sacrificed a lot. “The then BJP MLA Kishan Reddy had even failed to resign from his post,” he reminded.

Telangana agitation was all about water, funds and employment. In the last seven years, the agriculture sector registered a growth of 10 per cent against the national average of three per cent. In the last year, 21 per cent growth was recorded.

The Prime Minister admitted that Central Government had procured one lakh crore worth paddy was procured from Telangana. All this was achieved due to Chief Minister K Chandrashekhar Rao’s vision in constructing Kaleshwaram and other irrigation projects, extending Rythu Bandhu, free power supply, he said.

Regarding funds, the Minister said the per capita income in the ‘double engine’ model Uttar Pradesh was Rs.71,442, while it was Rs.2.78 lakh. Since the State formation, Telangana Government spent Rs.11 lakh crore on development works alone, he explained, adding “This is the achievement of single engine Telangana Government”.

On the employment, the Minister demanded the BJP Government to release a white paper.

The BJP Government had promised to offer two crore jobs every year and in eight years, 16 crore jobs had to be offered but the Central Government failed in filling up vacancies, he slammed.

On the contrary, Telangana Government has issued notification for 1.50 lakh posts and of these, already 1.35 lakh posts had been filled up. In addition to these, the State Government was filling up 91,000 vacancies in different departments, he said.