Revanth Reddy wants to be compared to Indira Gandhi, Rajiv Gandhi, PVNR, not to other CMs

"My goal is to make Telangana a one trillion dollar economy, with a focus on health, education, and employment," Revanth Reddy stated in response to a question about the leadership styles of former Chief Ministers YS Rajasekhara Reddy and N. Chandrababu Naidu at the ABP Southern Rising Summit on Friday.

Hyderabad: Chief Minister A Revanth Reddy said he preferred to be compared with former Prime Ministers, including Indira Gandhi, Rajiv Gandhi and PV Narasimha Rao rather than being compared with other Chief Ministers in matters of ensuring welfare and development.

“My aim is to make Telangana a one trillion dollar economy. Focus will be on health, education and employment sectors,” Revanth Reddy said in reply to a question on the working style of Chief Ministers like late YS Rajashekhara Reddy and N Chandrababu Naidu at the ABP Southern Rising Summit here on Friday.

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Interestingly, even as protests were continuing across the State for the tardy implementation of the corp loan waiver, the Chief Minister claimed that the Congress government had waived off crop loans of 22 lakh farmers spending about Rs.18,000 crore. He also claimed that 50,000 government jobs were offered to unemployed youth within 10 months. This claim was when the previous government had issued notifications for filling up nearly 30,000 jobs and completed the exercise but could not present the appointment letters due to the assembly elections.

The Chief Minister, stating that urbanization was the only solution for spurring economic growth, said it was for this purpose that the Musi Riverfront development project, Regional Ring Road, Future City and other projects were proposed. To get investments and promote industrial revolution, tours were conducted to South Korea, United States and Davos, he said.

Announcing that the State government was planning to further develop Bapu Ghat at Langar Houz in 200 acres, the Chief Minister said efforts were on to get River Godavari water into Rivers Musi and Esa and make it a (Triveni Sangamam) confluence of three rivers. He however did not mention that the previous government had already launched the Godavari Drinking Water Supply Scheme (GDWSS) and a treatment plant was set up at Mallaram to meet the drinking water needs of Hyderabad.

“BJP government in Gujarat can take up Sabarmati riverfront and Gift City projects but BJP leaders in Telangana are opposing the Musi project. The Congress did not oppose when the Statue of Unity was constructed in Gujarat,” Revanth Reddy said, slamming the Union government for its discrimination towards the southern States.

Reiterating what the BRS government had been saying for the last 10 years, the Chief Minister said Prime Minister Narendra Modi was taking the investments and projects from Telangana to Gujarat.

In terms of tax devolution too, the Union government was discriminating against the Southern States. For every one rupee that Telangana contributes to the national economy through taxes, in turn it gets only 0.40 paisa, he said pointing out that States like Uttar Pradesh, Bihar, Madhya Pradesh, Rajasthan and others were getting more than their contribution.

Regarding the union government’s plans on delimitation of parliament seats, the Chief Minister said he had already initiated steps to raise concerns.

“I spoke to Karnataka Chief Minister Siddaramaiah to lead the exercise but unfortunately he is facing many cases due to vendetta politics. I will coordinate with other Southern State Chief Ministers to protect fundamental rights,” Revanth Reddy said.

He also extended support to Andhra Pradesh Chief Minister N Chandrababu Naidu’s appeal to young parents to have more children. “We need to have a youth population. In countries like Japan, they were creating robots to meet workforce requirements,” he said.