Stop aping Telangana’s schemes, start contributing to its development: Harish Rao tells Nadda

In a strong counter to Nadda, Harish Rao said the BJP national president had admitted that the BRS cannot be defeated in Telangana unless the former announces VRS (voluntary retirement).

Hyderabad: Tearing into the allegations levelled by BJP national president JP Nadda against the BRS, Finance Minister T Harish Rao stated that the Centre which was aping Telangana’s welfare and development schemes, had done nothing for the State. He ridiculed Nadda’s vow to come to power in Telangana and pointed out that the latter failed to lead his party to victory in the Assembly elections in his native State of Himachal Pradesh.

In a strong counter to Nadda, Harish Rao said the BJP national president had admitted that the BRS cannot be defeated in Telangana unless the former announces VRS (voluntary retirement). He said Nadda struggled for rhyming words, but did not clarify on why the BJP could not fulfill its poll promises of depositing Rs 15 lakh into bank accounts, raise rupee value, double farmers income and provide crores of jobs. He demanded that the BJP leader release a white paper on BJP’s contribution for Telangana’s development. He reminded that Nadda himself forgot his promise to establish a Flourosis research institute at Munugode even after laying foundation.

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The Finance Minister said the BRS had implemented schemes like Mission Bhagiratha, Rythu Bandhu, Kalyana Lakshmi and KCR Kits among others, though they were not promised in the election manifesto. Due to the proactive measures of the Chief Minister, the Telangana government has been consistently winning awards from the union government in different sectors. He wondered if the Centre would stop giving awards as Telangana was winning them in all sectors. “With the success of our schemes, the BJP government at the Centre is aping them. They want to gain publicity, without giving credit to the Telangana government,” he added.

Harish Rao advised the BJP national president to update himself rather than merely reading out the speech copy given by the party State leaders. “People of Telangana are aware of the conspiracy and divisive politics of the BJP. We also can make objectionable allegations against Prime Minister Narendra Modi and union Home Minister Amit Shah for all the discrimination meted out to Telangana, but we have been maintaining restraint,” he said.

The Finance Minister slammed the Modi government for borrowing Rs 1 lakh crore every month which resulted in escalation of the Central debts by a whopping Rs 100 lakh crore in last eight years. He ridiculed the BJP leaders’ argument about double engine growth in BJP-ruled States and demanded to know why they were lagging behind Telangana in all the sectors. He reminded that Telangana was a top State in terms of State-owned revenue. “BJP is pushing the country into debts, while Telangana’s debts are within FRBM (fiscal responsibility and budget management) limits and stands at 23rd rank among 28 States,” he stated.

Responding to union Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman’s “weak Hindi” remarks, Harish Rao said Hindi of Telangana people could be weak, but they are both honest and better performers than the BJP government which is not only weak, but also weakening the country as well. He advised union Tourism Minister G Kishan Reddy to get pending funds released from the Centre to Telangana, rather than making sweeping remarks. He said what Telangana received in terms of GST compensation was lesser than other States.