Where is State revenue going, asks KCR

Taking a jibe at Revanth Reddy, the BRS chief said though the Chief Minister proved to be inefficient in keeping up his promises.

Hyderabad: Lambasting the Congress over its failure to fulfill its poll promises in the last five months, Leader of Opposition and BRS president K Chandrashekhar Rao on Tuesday sought to know for what the State’s revenue was being spent for. As broken promises were not enough, Chief Minister A Revanth Reddy had stopped disbursement of Rythu Bandhu financial assistance to farmers by conspiring to lodge a complaint with the Election Commission of India and getting orders imposing a temporary ban, he said.

Campaigning for BRS Zaheerabad MP candidate Gali Anil Kumar in Kamareddy on Tuesday, Chandrashekhar Rao asked the public whether the government gave Rythu Bandhu to farmers, Rs.2,500 and two-wheelers to women, Rs.4,000 monthly allowance to unemployed youth, Rs.4,000 pensions to senior citizens, and other benefits under various schemes promised by the Congress government. When the crowd responded with a “No”, he asked the State government where the revenue earned by the State in last five months had gone.

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“If the Congress government is not spending its revenue on public welfare and development programmes, where did it go? What are they spending on?” he asked, stating that the Congress government had not only failed to deliver its poll promises, but had also discontinued welfare and development programmes initiated by the previous BRS government and deprived access to basic needs of people including drinking water and power supply. He reminded that people never faced such challenges in nearly 10 years of the BRS rule.

Taking a jibe at Revanth Reddy, the BRS chief said though the Chief Minister proved to be inefficient in keeping up his promises, he proved to be capable of two things. One was to take oath on Gods and the Goddesses to set fresh deadlines to deliver his promises and the other was to abuse him (Chandrashekhar Rao) for questioning the delay in implementing his promises.

“The Chief Minister had promised to deposit the Rythu Bandhu assistance into bank accounts of all farmers in the State by May 9. Now, he conspired to get a complaint lodged with the Election Commission of India and stopped it again till the Lok Sabha elections were completed. Even after elections, there is no guarantee that he will provide it to all farmers and restrict it to only farmers with land holding upto five acres,” he said.

Stating that during the BRS rule, huge investments were brought to Telangana, he said now power cuts and water scarcity were forcing these these companies to shift to other States. “If this continues, we will lose employment opportunities,” he added.

The former Chief Minister also lashed out at the BJP dubbing it a party of capitalists, and not of the poor. He pointed out that in last decade, the BJP-led Central government ensured more benefits for capitalists than any good for the poor and marginalised sections. “Prime Minister Narendra Modi gave over 150 promises, but did not realise them,” he said.

He stated that while the country’s economy was falling and its reputation took a beating internationally, the Prime Minister was busy creating divisions among citizens of the country. Taking a dig at the BJP’s slogan of “Ab ki baar, 400 par”, he said if BJP comes to power again, petrol and diesel prices would definitely go “Rs.400 par”.

Expressing anger over Modi’s remarks of “killing the mother, to save the child” while refering to the formation of Telangana, Chandrashekhar Rao urged people from resorting to impulsive voting and instead, to cast their votes with wisdom for a better future for the State and the country.