Unable to raise loans as no one trusts me, admits Telangana Chief Minister Revanth Reddy

Says no money to pay retirement benefits, government trying to restructure debts and reduce interest component in banks to bail itself out of crisis

Hyderabad: In a startling admission, Chief Minister A Revanth Reddy on Thursday said the State government was unable to raise loans as no one trusted him nor the government.

The State government has to pay Rs 8,000 crore retirement benefits to employees. On an average, every month, 1,000 employees were retiring from service and by the end of the year, 10,000 employees were retiring. Accordingly, Rs 8,000 crore retirement benefits were due.

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“From where do we get these funds. No one trusts us, no one will give us loans,” he said while speaking at the Koluvula Pandaga programme at Ravindra Bharathi here on Thursday.

To bail itself out of the crisis, the government was trying to restructure the debts and reduce the interest component in the banks, he said. “I visited New Delhi 32 times for debt restructuring and to cut down the interest rate to five or six per cent. When income is generated, the same will be spent on welfare and development,” he claimed.

Revanth Reddy said a peculiar situation was prevailing in the State. Generally, youth stage protest demanding job notifications but here in Telangana, youth protested asking the government to hold and delay the notifications, he claimed.

Stating that people wanted him to change his temperament, especially after becoming the Chief Minister, Revanth Reddy said they expect him to transform and were raising objections over his language. “If I behave in a polite manner, there should be people to understand that change. There is no change in my temperament but I am upgrading my wisdom as Chief Minister,” Revanth Reddy said.

The Chief Minister also found fault with people in Telangana visiting temples in other States. If they got TTD, Telangana has YTD (Yadagirigutta). “Why should we plead for darshan and seek MLA recommendations. Don’t we have Bhadrachalam and Sri Lakshmi Narasimha Swamy or Ramappa?” he asked, stating that the government had come up with a tourism policy to develop all these places.