Hyderabad, Aug 16 (PTI) Telangana Chief Minister A Revanth Reddy on Sunday said the Assembly would be convened in September and challenged BRS president K Chandrasekhar Rao, who has largely stayed away from the legislature since losing power in December 2023, to attend the session.
Reddy, who addressed a public meeting at Parkala near Warangal, said BRS working president K T Rama Rao and his cousin and MLA T Harish Rao have often demanded that the government convene the Assembly.
“Chandrasekhar Rao, who has 40 years of experience and served as chief minister and union minister, should attend the Assembly session. He should discuss welfare and development that took place during his 10-year-long rule,” he said.
The development and welfare measures introduced by the Congress government over the last two-and-a-half-years and the Rs 8.11 lakh crore debt burden “handed over legacy” by the BRS government should also be discussed in the Assembly, he said.
The state government is currently paying Rs 75,000 crore annually towards principal and interest on the debt burden whereas only Rs 6,500 crore used to be paid annually before the formation of Telangana in 2014 (when BRS assumed power), he said.
Reddy said he has not taken leave even for three days in the last 32 months since he became chief minister.
He said he treats state Panchayat Raj Minister Danasari Anasuya Seethakka as his own sister.
In a sharp attack on Rama Rao, he alleged that the former “pushed his sister (TRS president K Kavitha) out of the home” as he was unwilling to share property with her.
Can a person who cannot do justice to his own sister do justice to the two crore women of Telangana, he asked.
“When the son throws sister out of the home… did the father (KCR) close his eyes? Is he like ‘Dhritarashtra’ (of Mahabharat)? He should have rebuked his son and ensured a 50 per cent share in the property for his daughter,” he said.
Alleging that the BRS leaders are now trying to provoke unemployed youth, he said the BRS did not give jobs when the party was in power and question papers were sold like “peanuts” when recruitment tests were conducted.
The Congress government filled up 70,000 vacancies since it assumed office in December, 2023 and the government would fill up all vacancies in a phased manner, he said.
Reddy charged that Harish Rao and other party leaders provoked youth during the Telangana statehood agitation which led to the suicide of 1,200 youth. However, none in the family of KCR suffered even a minor burn injury, he said.
The plan of BRS is to provoke youth, cause deaths and then come to power, he claimed.
Referring to a blood donation camp organised recently in BRS office here, he said no family member of KCR donated blood.
“Hundreds of innocent BRS workers donated blood and it was sold off to private hospitals for crores of rupees. Are you blood thristy,” he asked.
Why Rama Rao and Harish Rao did not donate blood, he asked.
Urging the youth not to waste their time and sacrifice their lives, Reddy said police cases would haunt them if they participated in dharnas and other such protests.
Drawing a comparison between him and KCR, Reddy said he, as chief minister, made Congress leaders belonging to backward and all other sections as ministers.
However, KCR allotted posts to his son, daughter, nephews and relatives when the BRS was in power, the CM said.
While he did social justice, KCR ensured “family justice”, he added.
Earlier, addressing a public meeting in Mulugu district after attending development programmes, CM Reddy reiterated his indirect allegations against Harish Rao, that he performed occult rituals in temples in Karnataka and Tamil Nadu seeking a drought in Telangana and to defame the Congress government.
Harish Rao on August 15 said the CM is making “cheap comments” against him as he is questioning the former on various issues, including alleged corruption in government, incomplete farm loan waiver and lack of adequate supply of fertilisers.
Harish Rao said he will continue to speak on behalf of farmers, unemployed youth, students and others.
He said he will file a defamation suit over the allegations made against him.
The chief minister alleged that the previous BRS government neglected the Sammakka Sarakka temple in Mulugu district.
Focusing on students, he suggested that they acquire technical qualifications after Intermediate (11th and 12th standard) by pursuing courses in ITIs transformed as Advanced Technology Centres (ATCs), polytechnic colleges and the skills university set up by the state government.
The students can shift focus from the US to other countries such as Germany and Japan, where employment opportunities are available, he said.
The state government would help them learn German and Japanese languages, he added. PTI SJR SJR KH
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