The Congress Government in Telangana will start implementing from February its guarantee scheme of 200 units free electricity every month for Below Poverty Line (BPL) households, said state Minister Komatireddy Venkat Reddy on Tuesday.
The announcement comes amid growing criticism from main Opposition party Bharat Rashtra Samithi (BRS) over the delay by the ruling party in implementing its six guarantees.
BRS Working President, KT Rama Rao had appealed to the people on January 20 not to pay the electricity bills until free electricity was provided to BPL households as promised by the Congress party in the Assembly elections.
The BRS leader had even asked people to send their current bills to Sonia Gandhi’s house as Chief Minister A. Revanth Reddy had said during the election campaign that the Congress leader would pay the current bills after Congress came to power.
The Manifesto Committee of Telangana Pradesh Congress Committee (TPCC) held a meeting in Hyderabad to review implementation of the promises. AICC incharge Deepa Dasmunshi and All India Professionals’ Congress Chairman Praveen Chakravarty and other leaders attended the meeting.
After the meeting, Minister for Roads and Buildings, Komatireddy Venkat Reddy said the Telangana Government will implement all the poll promises.
He announced that free power up to 200 units will be implemented from February.
The minister reiterated that the six guarantees will be implemented in 100 days. He alleged that the state is in a financial mess due to the mismanagement by the previous KCR-led BRS Government and this had led to some delay in implementation of the guarantees.
Responding to the criticism by BRS leaders, he reminded them that right from unemployment allowance to two bedroom houses, the BRS failed to fulfil all promises it had made to the people.
He alleged that the BRS was trying to provoke people and said if the Congress had provoked people like them, the BRS leaders would have been forced to flee their farm houses.
Minister for Information Technology and Industries and Chairman of the Manifesto Committee, Sridhar Babu said the Congress party gave people the best manifesto before elections and the six guarantees given in the manifesto were immediately implemented after coming to power.
He pointed out that the Congress Government had already provided free travel facility to women in TSRTC buses and increased the coverage under Arogyasri scheme from Rs.5 lakh to Rs.10 lakh.
Stating that people reposed faith in the Congress party, he reiterated that the Telangana Government will implement all the promises.
Sridhar Babu said that the Opposition parties were acting in haste to criticise the government.