Was the Congress government repeatedly talking about the ‘State’s indebted condition’ to evade implementation of the over 400 promises it made during election campaign, asked Nirmal BJP MLA Alleti Maheshwar Reddy on Saturday.
Sharing his party’s views on the Governor’s Address, he urged the government to release a white paper on the ways and means through which it would procure funds to fulfil election promises. “You are repeatedly talking only about the six guarantees. What about 412 other assurances you gave to people while seeking their mandate in the election?” he questioned.
He also wanted to know why the Congress government had not taken steps to give legal sanctity to the six guarantees. “Let it happen in this session,” he remarked. Mr. Maheshwar Reddy raised doubts over the sincerity of the government in convening Praja Darbar regularly.
He said that initially Chief Minister A. Revanth Reddy assured to hold the programme daily at Praja Bhavan (earlier known as Pragathi Bhavan during KCR’s stint as CM). “Now they say it would be convened twice a week. Once they said Pragathi Bhavan would be transformed into hospital and another time promised to make it a study circle,” he remarked.
Mr. Maheshwar Reddy, who won the Nirmal seat on Praja Rajyam Party ticket in 2009, lost as Congress nominee in 2014 and 2018 before winning the seat as BJP candidate in the just concluded polls, said Congress got only a slender margin in the State. “Mr. Revanth Reddy became CM even after losing from one of the two constituencies (Kamareddy) he had contested,” he noted.
Even as he said there was no use in offering freebies to people, Deputy Chief Minister Bhatti Vikramarka requested him to secure funds for the State’s progress from the Centre since the BJP was in power there. Referring to Congress leaders’ claims that a separate Telangana State could be achieved because of them, the Nirmal MLA contended that it could not have been possible without BJP’s support.
Responding to this, Transport Minister Ponnam Prabhakar said Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s comments stating that Telangana was created by closing Parliament doors made people realise how hollow the BJP’s claim for a separate Telangana State was. Meanwhile, BRS MLA Kadiam Srihari suggested to the BJP MLA to pass a unanimous resolution to accord national project status to Palamuru Rangareddy irrigation project.