Alleging that Bharat Rashtra Samithi (BRS) and Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) are conspiring to pull down his government, Telangana Chief Minister A. Revanth Reddy said on Sunday that he will have to make some tough decisions to counter this conspiracy.
He also stated that with the election code coming into force for Lok Sabha elections, he began his political role as state president of the Congress party.
“From today, I have started playing a political role. Since the poll bugle has been sounded, I will now show my political role as president of the political party,” he said.
His remarks at a ‘Meet the Press’ programme came a few minutes before a sitting MP and a sitting MLA of BRS joined the Congress party.
Revanth Reddy, who completed 100 days in office on Sunday, said leaders of both BRS and BJP were speaking the same language on the future of his government. Referring to BJP MP Laxman’s prediction that the Congress government will collapse after the Lok Sabha elections, he said BRS leader Kadiam Srihari had also made a similar statement earlier.
“BRS has 38 MLAs and BJP has eight. How can they form the government without adopting some other tricks? Shall we keep quiet when they are conspiring against the government,” he asked.
He claimed that in 100 days the government tried to give good governance and made no attempt to encourage defections. “For 100 days as Chief Minister, I focussed only on governance. Working daily for 18 hours, I tried to provide transparent governance,” he said.
Comparing KCR’s 10-year rule with Nizam’s rule, Revanth Reddy alleged that like Nizam, KCR also acted in an autocratic manner and wanted to keep people as bonded labour citing the development and welfare works done by him. He said the BRS Chief also followed in the footsteps of Nizam by trying to continue family rule with autocracy.
He said December 3, 2023 (when Assembly elections results were declared) has the same significance as September 17, 1948, when Hyderabad State got liberation from Nizam’s rule.
Stating that Telangana never accepted slavery, Revanth Reddy said after 75 years they fought again for independence from Neo Nizam.
Claiming that the Congress government gave freedom to people in its 100-day ‘people’s rule’, the Chief Minister said it was moving ahead with the implementation of guarantees.
“We are doing our best to show that we are not rulers but servants of people,” he said, claiming that the government tried to bring transparency through decentralisation of governance.
Revanth Reddy said that the government is implementing the guarantees one after the other and ensuring their benefits to the poor.
He mentioned that soon after assuming office, he implemented the guarantee to provide free bus travel facilities for women. The government is also implementing a cooking gas cylinder for the Rs 500 scheme. So far eight lakh families have received gas cylinders for Rs 500.
Revanth Reddy said the government will also implement the guarantee of free electricity up to 200 units per month. He claimed that 39 lakh households have benefited from this.
He alleged that the previous BRS government turned Telangana into a debt-ridden state with Rs 9 lakh crore debts.
He pointed out that when Telangana state was formed, the state had to pay Rs 6,000 crore annually towards debt servicing but now the state is paying Rs 64,000 crore every year.
Replying to a query, he said the government was trying to put the state’s finances back on track by curbing wasteful expenditure and improving the GST collections. He expects that the state can mobilise an additional Rs 12,000 crore annually by improving the revenue collection.
Alleging that there was corruption of thousands of crores during BRS rule, he said the government has initiated steps to probe the same. “We will take action after completing the process of investigation in a legal manner,” he said.
Stating that vibrant Telangana is the government’s goal, the Chief Minister said the government was trying to resolve the issues one by one through cordial relations with the Centre and the Governor.
On Dharani portal, the online platform for land transactions launched by the previous government, Revanth Reddy said it was earlier controlled by a private organisation but his government has brought it under government control.
He announced a forensic audit of the portal will be done to find out how the ownership of lands, especially of those belonging to farmers, changed after 2014.
He said those found guilty of irregularities will not be spared.