BRS resolved decades-long water contamination problem in Asifabad: KCR

ASIFABAD: Bharat Rashtra Samithi (BRS) president and Telangana Chief Minister K Chandrashekar Rao (KCR) has blamed the Congress for not initiating concrete measures in finding a permanent solution to the decades-long water contamination problem in Asifabad during their regime.

Addressing the ‘Praja Ashirvad Sabha’ in Asifabad on Wednesday, KCR said that people never dreamt that Asifabad would be made a district. During the previous regime, Asifabad was in the news as several people in the region died due to water contamination. “It is the BRS Government which has supplied potable safe drinking water on a daily basis to the people living in 1,151 habitations in Komaram Bheem Asifabad district under the Mission Bhagiratha scheme,” he said.

Highlighting the welfare done by the BRS Government in Asifabad, the Chief Minister said that be it Integrated District Offices Complex (IDOC), Superintendent of Police Office or Government Medical College, all these were established by the State Government in the region, which was earlier neglected by the Congress in the undivided Andhra Pradesh. “People should draw a comparison between the BRS rule and the Congress and cast their vote for the party which extended benefits to them,” KCR said.

Referring to the distribution of podu lands to tribals in the district, KCR said that the BRS Government distributed around 47,000 acres of podu lands in Komaram Bheem Asifabad district out of a total of four lakh acres in Telangana to end the decades-long struggle and misery of the tribal community in the State. Apart from that, the Government also gave three-phase electricity connections to agricultural lands in the forest areas and remote villages in the district, he said.

On the inclusion of the Aray community in the OBC category, the Chief Minister said that there was an urgent need to fight and protect their rights and welfare. With respect to the Mali community, he said, “The Mali caste, which mostly inhabits the districts of Kagajnagar and Komaram Bheem Asifabad, have long been demanding that they be included in the ST list. Taking into consideration their socio-economic conditions, the Telangana Assembly unanimously passed a Government resolution urging the Centre to include a few backward castes in the list of Scheduled Tribes (STs).”

KCR criticised that the BJP-led NDA Government at the Centre had conveniently ignored the resolution passed by the Telangana Assembly. Steps would be taken by the Government by allocating funds for the upliftment of the Mali community, he added.