Hyderabad: The Bharat Rashtra Samiti President and Chief Minister, K Chandrashekhar Rao called upon the rank and file of the Maharashtra unit of the party to play a decisive role and help strengthen his hands to lead the country in the right direction.
He inaugurated a two- day workshop of the party functionaries on Friday at Nanded, a city fully draped in pink. All roads led to Anant Lawns, the venue of the workshop with party men attending in large numbers from all the 288 assembly constituencies of the neighbouring state. The BRS chief who flew down to Nanded in the day was accorded a rousing welcome by the party men.
Addressing the party men, he observed that though Telangana and Maharashtra were sharing a special bond along with a 1000 kilometer stretch of inter- state border, there was a yawning gap in terms of development between the two states.
The realities on the ground were not the same in the two states “in terms of development and progress’, he said. Maharastra, the land of Shivaji Maharaj was replete with the nationalistic spirit. Maharashtra state had a long history of embracing people-friendly and benevolent governments, he said recalling that socialist leaders like Madhu Dandavate from the State had fought the repressive rule the emergency days had ushered in the country.
People from Maharashtra have got to play a decisive role once again in giving the BRS an opportunity to revive their dwindling fortunes of the state as well as the country. He made it clear that those who were coming forward to join the BRS, should do so with a steely resolve. There shall be no question of backing out from the commitment being given by the party to the people.
He pointed out that after formation of Telangana state, it could solve many of its pressing problems. Every household was provided tapped drinking water in Telangana.
But with two major rivers of India- Godavari and Krishna taking their birth in Maharashtra, the plight of the state remained miserable. Many places were being served drinking water once in a week.
Telangana state had emerged as the largest producer of food grains in the country today because of the strides made in irrigation and power sectors while many parts of Maharashtra still remained in the grips of scarcity conditions, he observed.
Telangana government has been extending an assistance of Rs 10,000 per acre to the farmers under the Rythu Bandu programme. The government has the bank accounts of 70 lakh farmers with it. The Rythu Bandhu assistance is disbursed directly into farmers’ accounts at the press of a button from the office of the finance secretary. No middleman is involved and no application is needed in the process. The state sponsored Rythu Beema that extended an insurance cover of Rs 5 lakh to the farmers had benefited over
one lakh families that had lost their bread winners.
Why not the same schemes for Maharastra people?
This can be translated into a reality once the BRS voted to power in Maharashtra also, he assured. With the BRS impact the government in Maharashtra was now finding itself under pressure to do something for the farmers, a section neglected for long.
Officers of Maharashtra are now acknowledging the need for the Telangana model of development and Telangana State’s Rythu Bandhu kind of assistance to bail out the farmers. Why did it take so long for the Maharastra government to realize that farmers are in need of help, he questioned.
The country has been endowed with a gross yield of 1.40 lakh TMC of water from torrential rains every year, but it could utilize only 20,000 TMC of it with rest flowing untapped into the sea. Coming down heavily on the Congress Party that had been in power for decades for the ills of the country, he questioned as to why the country could not have four or five major projects that could have changed the its fate altogether.
Small countries like Singapore and Malaysia were being acclaimed today for their progress. The peasant community cannot be left to its fate in the country any longer, he thundered.
In Karnataka elections the BJP had paid the price for its politics of hatred. After Congress party victory, some people began to indulge in daydreaming, but they would draw a blank in Telangana state, he averred.