All India Congress Committee (AICC) secretary Ramachandra Kuntia said that the party was ready to face municipal elections and party machinery was geared up for that. However, he demanded that justice be done for backward classes and others in reservations.
Participating in Congress party preparatory meeting for the forthcoming municipal elections here on Sunday, Mr. Kuntia said that the government was hurriedly conducting municipal elections without completing the reservations properly. He said that a case was pending with the Supreme Court in this regard. Ridiculing the claims being made by the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) that it was the alternative for the ruling Telangana Rashtra Samithi (TRS) in the State, the AICC leader said that Congress will give a tough fight in the forthcoming municipal elections.
Telangana Pradesh Congress Committee (TPCC) president N. Uttam Kumar Reddy opined that there should be direct elections for municipalities and it should be have been incorporated in the new Municipal Act. He opined that there were several lapses in the new Act. “The TRS is claiming that it has good support among the public, if it is so then why has it failed to make municipal elections direct?” asked Mr Reddy. He objected to according rights to Collectors to remove municipal chairman and corporators as they wish. He said that it was not acceptable to the Congress party. He has also recalled the comments made by High Court on why the government was in a hurry to conduct elections within 30 days.
“Take the required time and provide rightful reservations for BCs,” he said and added that it was only Congress party which provided reservations for BCs.
Referring to the demand of pumping Godavari water to Sangareddy and establishment of a medical college, that have repeatedly been raised by local MLA T Jayaprakash Reddy, the TPCC president said that they wholly supported these demands.
The programme was presided over by Mr. Jayaprakash Reddy.
Congress senior leaders Bhatti Vikramarka, Ponnam Prabhakar, Shabbir Ali, J. Geeeta Reddy, Suresh Shetkar and others participated in the programme.
