KTR slams governor’s speech in Assembly, claims Congress lying about accomplishments in State

Hyderabad: Voicing discontent over the Governor Jishnu Dev Verma's speech for the budget session in the Assembly, Bharat Rashtra Samithi working president KT Rama Rao has alleged that governor lied about the Congress government fulfilling its promises to the people.

Jisnhu Dev Verma on Wednesday addressed the joint sitting of Telangana Legislature, which was attended by BRS president and former chief minister K Chandrashekar Rao (KCR).

‘Congress destroyed governor’s reputation’

He condemned the speech for allegedly not being appropriate for a ‘governor’s position’ and ‘resembling a news conference of Congress workers at Gandhi Bhavan’. KTR further claimed that the Congress administration has destroyed the governor’s reputation by forcing him to speak lies, half-truths and falsehoods.

“We hoped that the budget speech would provide clarity on the new issues facing the State or the 420 promises and six guarantees given to the people, and ways through which the government would atone for its poor governance of the last 15 months. But nothing like that happened,” KTR told the media at the Assembly Media Point here.

‘Governor’s speech was not reassuring’

The BRS working president alleged that because of the Congress government’s catastrophic failure, farmers in the State are suffering, harvests are drying up, and, even though 480 farmers have committed suicide, the governor’s speech had no reassurances for those families.

“No more than 25-30 per cent loan waiver has been done across the State. The government has not responded to this issue even after the BRS leaders said they would resign if the government can show even one village where 100 per cent loan waiver was done,” he said, and expressed ire at the governor for lying when he claimed that millions of farmers were pleased and that the loan waiver process was complete.

Congress welfare benefits are not reaching people, says KTR

KTR criticised the Congress leaders for making the governor falsely claim that farmers are getting loan waivers and Rythu Bandhu and that daily wage workers are receiving Rs 12,000 each year and help with investments when none of that was allegedly happening.

KTR claimed that the Congress government has ignored the irrigation sector in the State and demanded that chief minister A Revanth Reddy take responsibility for the irrigation water problems.

‘Medigadda Barrage left in repairs just out of spite for KCR’

He said that the Congress government has left the Medigadda Barrage dry for 15 months without repair, just out of blind hatred for KCR, which has affected the crops in the Godavari basin.

KTR also said that due to CM Revanth Reddy’s incompetence, crops are drying up on lakhs of acres, farmers are grazing sheep and cattle in their fields, and the governor’s speech did not mention a single word on these issues.

‘No vision, working only for commission’

“CM Revanth Reddy government has no vision, only working for 20 per cent commission. The chief minister has no other vision than sending packages to Delhi. This is probably the first time in the history of India that contractors have staged a dharna for bills at the Secretariat,” KTR said and added that CM Revanth Reddy’s government is an incompetent government that did not even express condolences to 83 students who died in Gurukuls due to their negligence.

‘Congress borrowed Rs 1.62 lakh crore in just 15 months’

Drawing a comparison between the BRS and the Congress on economic policies, the BRS working president said that while the KCR government borrowed Rs 4.17 lakh crore over 10 years and launched numerous irrigation projects, infrastructure development and welfare schemes, the Congress government has already borrowed Rs 1.62 lakh crore in just 15 months without launching a single new scheme or project.

‘Investments from Davos trip yet to materialise’

He further attacked the Congress for allegedly deceiving the public about getting investments of Rs 1.79 lakh crore from the visit to the World Economic Forum (WEF) conference in Davos. “Not even a single rupee of the Rs 40,000 crore promised last year has been realised. Due to his ineptitude, CM Revanth Reddy is driving away significant investments from Gujarat, Tamil Nadu and Andhra Pradesh, including Kaynes (Rs 3,800 crore), Corning (Rs 1,000 crore), and Premier Energy (Rs 1,700 crore),” he said.

KTR also mocked the Congress government’s emphasis on erecting statues within and outside the Telangana Secretariat rather than addressing governance concerns. He emphasised that if BRS regained power, the statues would be dismantled and sent to Gandhi Bhavan.

KTR calls the Telangana Caste Census reports fraud

The former minister further claimed that the Congress misled BCs by producing a fraudulent caste census report and pledging to implement BC reservation policies. He alleged that CM Revanth silenced its own MLCs for challenging the veracity of the caste census report and flawed policies. He declared that the people of Telangana would not be duped and would respond appropriately to the Congress government’s dishonesty.

Congress challenged KTR to debate

Reacting to KTR’s remarks on the governor’s speech, Congress MLC Balmoor Venkat said that the behaviour of the main opposition members during the governor’s speech was regrettable. He challenged KTR to debate on BRS’s 10-year rule and Congress’s 15-month rule in the State.

“Within 12 months of the Congress party coming to power, we have been working for the betterment of people from all sections of society. We are implementing welfare schemes for students, the unemployed, women and farmers. Apart from that, we are also working to implement the hopes and aspirations of the martyrs,” he said.

The MLC also said that the Congress government is providing assurance to the unemployed by making job notifications and recruitment transparent. “We created 55,000 jobs in just 15 months, waived off 21,000 crores of farmer loans and conducted a BC caste census, which no government has been able to do for many years. Even started providing free bus trips for women, LPG for just Rs 500, and 200 units of free electricity,” he said.