Telangana Chief Minister K. Chandrasekhar Rao made a strong pitch for forging a non-Congress and non-BJP alternative at the Central level as according to him governments headed by the two parties have failed to live up to expectations.
“Over 70 years after Independence, the country is still faced with rampant unemployment and farmers’ suicides as the coalitions headed by the two principal parties utterly failed in keeping their assurances. Rather than ensuring a united country moving towards progress, we have seen divisions being created between the people for political gains,” he said.
Mr. Rao was addressing a gathering at Pragati Bhavan, his camp office, on Sunday. West Bengal Chief Minister Mamta Banerjee, Jharkhand former Chief Minister Hemant Soren and a few MPs from Maharashtra called the Chief Minister over telephone and extended their support to the proposed alternative.
“I had not said anything big. But surprisingly people from all corners of the country are calling me extending their support. This indicates how the governments failed to fulfil the aspirations of the people. While the people voted out the Congress for its failures, the BJP government which came to power failed to address the crucial issues facing the people in the last four years. There is no change in the plight of the suffering sections in spite of change in the governments,” he said.
Mr. Rao took strong objections to the Centre deciding the course of action on key issues facing the States. “Centre should leave health, education, agriculture, urban infrastructure and related affairs to the State while keeping external affairs, defence and national highways. “The Prime Minister’s Grameen Sadak Yojana for instance. What has the Prime Minister to do with the rural road infrastructure?” he said.
He also said that the rule of reservations should be left with the States. “BCs, SCs, STs and minorities constitute more than 85 per cent population of Telangana. But the State is not permitted to enhance the quota to suit its requirements,” he added.
The Centre, he said, delayed decisions on key issues like water sharing as a result of which States were left to fend for themselves. “There is dispute between Karnataka and Tamil Nadu over Cauvery waters so is the problem between Telangana and AP for sharing Krishna and Godavari waters. The same was the case with power wherein several areas continued to reel under darkness at a time when the country’s installed power generation capacity was pegged at more than 3.2 lakh MW,” he said.
