Telangana Rashtra Samiti president and Chief Minister K. Chandrasekhar Rao has termed painful the ‘chalo Assembly’ call given by the main opposition Congress on the day of commencement of the session of the legislature.
The Chief Minister questioned the rationale behind conducting such a protest when the Government was prepared to allow elaborate debates on all the issues of immediate importance in the Assembly and the Council. “There is no precedent of an opposition calling for protest on the first day of the session. At a time when the Government has expressed its willingness to prolong the session to allow debate on the issues raised by the opposition parties, where is the need for conducting chalo Assembly?” he was said to have questioned.
The Chief Minister was addressing the meeting of the Telangana Rashtra Samiti legislature party at the party headquarters, Telangana Bhavan, here on Thursday. Deputy Chief Minister Kadiyam Srihari, who briefed the media about the proceedings, quoted the Chief Minister as saying that the Government was prepared to reply to all the queries raised by the Opposition and had hence, offered to conduct the upcoming session of the legislature for 50 days and more even before the opposition requested.
Mr. Rao said the Opposition was, however, trying to gain political mileage by organising such a protest. “The motives behind organising such protests are amply clear. The Congress does not want discussions on the issues of public importance,” he said. He exhorted the party legislators to do adequate homework to effectively rebut the opposition charges and ensure that the good work done by the Government was communicated to people. The party legislators should attend the Assembly and Council meetings with adequate preparedness and information so as to effectively rebut opposition charges.
The Government had launched a spree of welfare and developmental programmes for achieving accelerated development of the State and these programmes should be effectively taken to people. The TRS president, who introduced the newly constituted State party executive to participants, wanted them to work in coordination with elected representatives to ensure the reach of the Government’s programmes to the grassroots level. “The party rank and file should focus on the programmes to ensure that the party is returned to power in the next elections. This will necessitate effective coordination between the leaders at different levels,” he said.
On party affairs, he said over 60 lakh people had enrolled themselves as members in the recent membership drive conducted by the party and the party, on its part, paid ₹ 9.87 crore to insurance companies for their benefit.
