Instead of proving its claim that the Centre has devolved/assisted ₹ 1 lakh crore to Telangana in three years the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) has run away from the challenge posed by Chief Minister K. Chandrasekhar Rao on the issue, senior leader of Telangana Rashtra Samithi (TRS) and Irrigation Minister T. Harish Rao said.
Addressing a press conference here on Thursday along with Energy Minister G. Jagadish Reddy, party MP B. Suman and legislators B. Venkateshwaralu and K. Prabhakar, Mr. Harish Rao said by skipping the issue of funding to the State, the BJP leaders, who spoke to newspersons earlier in the day, indirectly admitted that they were not game for the challenge.
Instead of speaking about how the Centre had given ₹1 lakh crore to Telangana as claimed by them the BJP leaders had spoken about 90,000 houses sanctioned by the Centre.
Detailed explanation
The Chief Minister had explained in detail that only ₹67,000 crore had come to Telangana from the Centre in three years and it was for the BJP leaders to prove their claim, Mr. Rao said.
“In fact, the statistics placed before the people by the Chief Minister on Wednesday have made it clear whether it was Centre giving more to Telangana or Telangana is contributing more to the Centre,” Mr. Harish Rao said.
Follow up
He suggested to the BJP leaders, if they were sincere towards Telangana, to pursue release of pending dues (funds) from the Centre including ₹1,000 crore from Central Sales Tax, ₹1,500 crore CAMPA funds, declaring one irrigation project as national project as done for Andhra Pradesh, bifurcating the High Court, sanctioning Tribal University and AIIMS and increasing the reservation to Minorities and Scheduled Tribes by including it in the Ninth Schedule of the Constitution.
The ruling party at Centre had even assured of giving an additional funding of ₹20,000 crore every year to Telangana for development but in vain, Mr. Harish Rao pointed out and said no other State in the country had taken up welfare and development schemes in the measure the Telangana Government had done.
“The BJP leaders have either spoke lies or half-truths. People in the North may accept such unfounded claims but not in Telangana,” he noted.Further, the visit of officials from several States and the Centre, including some BJP ruled States, to learn about Mission Bhagiratha and Mission Kakatiya was an ample proof about the vision of Telangana and the strides it is making, he added.
