Congress put rural Telangana on backburner, village administration collapsed: Harish Rao

HYDERABAD: Former Minister Harish Rao has said that the Congress Government has not released a single rupee for the development of villages after coming to power resulting in the discontinuation of initiatives launched by the KCR Government such as ‘Palle Pragathi’.

Addressing a press conference at Telangana on Tuesday, he said that under KCR, the government's priority was the development of villages and towns and sanitation. “Not a single paisa has been released to villages and towns in seven months. The BRS Government released funds every month. Under the BRS regime, villages have become a role model for the country,” the former finance Minister noted.

He pointed out that the terms of the sarpanches and Zilla Parishads were over and no elections were held. He recalled that there were only 87 tractors with the panchayats when BRS came to power and today the number had risen to 12,769. The tractors were under use as officials were facing problems in purchasing diesel. “Moreover, the authorities are seizing the tractors as road tax was not paid and for lack of insurance,” Harish Rao said.

“Telangana received Deendayal and Sansad Adarsh Yojana awards during the KCR regime. Now villages are crying for attention under the Congress rule. Now the situation is such that the sanitation workers have not been paid salaries for seven months and are facing many difficulties. Power bills of Panchaytas are not paid. In a nutshell, the village administration has collapsed,” he said.

Harish Rao said that the garbage was not collected regularly and there were no special drives to encourage sanitation. He expressed anger over the non-payment of salaries to sanitation workers for months. “How will they survive without money? Why the Government is not reviewing it? Finally, the sarpanches met the Governor and submitted a memorandum. The BRS Government used to spend Rs. 275 crore per month and Rs 3,330 crore annually for rural development and another Rs 1,700 crore for the cities every year,” he said.

Demanding immediate payment of salaries to MPTCs and ZPTCs, Harish Rao said that the Congress was hellbent on destroying local bodies. “Without sanitation who is responsible for malaria and dengue,” he said adding that the BRS Government created a green channel for Palle Pragathi and Urban Pragathi funds and Rs 20,000 crore has been spent on rural and urban development,” he pointed out.

Harish Rao said in Andhra Pradesh, Chief Minister Chandrababu Naidu released Rs 4,000 as pension adding arrears, whereas the Congress Government here had paid the regular pensions. He demanded that the seven mandals forcibly taken and merged with Andhra Pradesh must be returned to Telangana.

Urging farmers not to resort to suicides, Harish Rao said that in Khammam, a farmer, Prabhakar, allegedly committed suicide for voting for the Congress. “His suicide is sad. There were tears in my eyes while watching the video. Prabhakar's father went to the police station and they did not take a complaint. The law and order situation has deteriorated in the state,” he observed.

He held the Congress Government responsible for Prabhakar's death. He said that his death could have been avoided if the MRO, Collector, or any official responded in time. “Instead of filing cases against those responsible for the death, cases were filed against those who made the video. The farmer took the name of Revanth Reddy. Revanth Reddy should speak on behalf of farmers. Arrest the accused, file a case, and hand over his land to his family,” Harish said.