Hyderabad: TRS working president and MAUD Minister KT Rama Rao stopped State BJP president Bandi Sanjay Kumar in his tracks on Wednesday and nailed him for spreading falsehood on the Telangana State government’s stand on establishing the Information Technology Investment Region (ITIR) in Hyderabad.
Pointing out that Union IT and Electronics Minister Ravi Shankar Prasad had made a clear statement in Parliament that the ITIR scheme had been shelved in the country, Rama Rao said: “Sanjay should first speak to the Union Minister and also the BJP leadership at the Centre to get his facts right before speaking about the ITIR. Chief Minister K Chandrashekhar Rao had written a letter to Prime Minister Narendra Modi in June 2014 (immediately after achieving Statehood) for implementation of ITIR in the State. We submitted a memorandum with all the details in September 2014, which was followed up with multiple letters, reports and representations by the Chief Minister, myself and also TRS MPs. But there was no response.”
Demanding a public apology from the BJP leader for spreading falsehood and for the saffron party’s failure to get ITIR to Hyderabad, the TRS working president said Sanjay being unaware of this fact (Union Minister’s statement) is a testament to his ignorance.
Responding to the open letter by Sanjay to the Chief Minister, Rama Rao slammed the BJP leader for spreading lies and blaming the Telangana government for the Centre’s inaction. He termed the allegations of the BJP State president as absurd and blatant lies.
He said the Centre did not implement the ITIR projects sanctioned to the States of Andhra Pradesh, Odisha and Karnataka besides Telangana. He demanded to know the reasons for the Centre not implementing the ITIR project in other States including Karnataka where the BJP is in power. “How are we responsible for the Centre’s decision to shelve the ITIR project? If anyone has to be blamed for ITIR remaining a non-starter, it is the BJP government at the Centre and its failure to develop the IT sector. The BJP should apologise to the unemployed youth in the State for stepping back from the ITIR project. If the BJP leaders have any honesty left in them, they should make the Centre issue a statement on the subject,” he demanded.
The Minister challenged the BJP leaders to show at least one new scheme initiated by the Centre to attract investments and promoting the IT sector in the country.
Rubbishing the allegations made by Sanjay that the Centre had cancelled the ITIR project due to the State government’s failure to submit reports, the Minister offered to provide all the letters written by the State government from 2014 onwards as well as the detailed project reports submitted to the Centre to Bandi Sanjay and dared him to get ITIR to the State. “Does Bandi Sanjay have the guts to get the ITIR or its equivalent project to Hyderabad city? He has written the letter only to spread his lies and gain publicity through media for vote bank politics. The BJP has mastered the art of spreading lies to mislead people which is evident from the latest letter,” he stated.
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