TRS boycotts Presidential speech in Parliament
Hyderabad: Upping the ante against the Centre, the Telangana Rashtra Samithi members from Lok Sabha and Rajya Sabha boycotted the joint session of Parliament addressed by President Ramnath Kovind on the first day of the budget session that commenced on Monday. They decided to stay away from the Presidential address to Parliament in protest against the injustice being meted out to the State by the Centre in various projects and release of funds.
As per directions from TRS President and Chief Minister K Chandrashekhar Rao, the TRS MPs stayed away from the Parliamentary proceedings on Monday. Further, the party Parliament members have decided to confront the union government on pending issues pertaining to Telangana.
However, the TRS Parliamentary Party leader K Keshava Rao and Lok Sabha floor leader Nama Nageshwara Rao attended the All-Party meeting convened virtually and demanded for discussion on the people’s issues in the Parliament. They stated that the ruling BJP was misusing the Parliamentary system to suppress the voices of the Opposition parties against raising people’s issues in both the Houses.
Both the TRS MPs raised several pending issues pertaining to Telangana State during the All-Party meeting, demanding to know why the BJP-led union government was treating Telangana State as its enemy and showing discrimination towards Telangana in sanction of funds and projects. “The Centre did not sanction funds for at least one major project in Telangana. Why the Central government which sanctioned 157 medical colleges to different States, did not sanction at least one of them to Telangana in last seven years?” Keshava Rao questioned.
The TRS MPs demanded for release of pending funds pertaining to the State since the State formation including the Backward Regions Grant Fund (BRGF) amounting to a total of Rs 900 crore. They criticised the Central government for its failure to create adequate employment in the country. They demanded that the union government should bring a comprehensive national policy on paddy procurement and reminded that several States like Telangana and Odisha were suffering due to parboiled rice issue.
Nageshwara Rao stated that taking advantage of its majority in the Parliament, the ruling BJP was trying to suppress the voice of the Opposition parties in both the Houses. He said after conducting raids misusing the Enforcement Directorate and Income Tax departments to intimidate the Opposition parties, the BJP government was also using the Parliamentary system for its benefits. He said though they were not criticising the Parliamentary system or the Central agencies, the union government was utilising the Privilage Committee to attack them. “There must be a discussion on the bifurcation issues as well as usage of Pegasus spyware which is a national security issue,” he demanded.
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