Will people believe in suitcase leaders or those who work for welfare of people?: KCR slams Congress

CHENNUR: BRS president and Telangana Chief Minister K Chandrashekar Rao (KCR) took a swipe at the Congress party and told the people to ask the Congress leaders, "Who is responsible for all the losses that have been incurred to Telangana?"

Speaking at the public meeting in Chennur on Tuesday, KCR said, "BRS party was formed 24 years ago but we don't have bosses in Delhi. But there are leaders from other parties who act like puppets in the hands of their Delhi bosses. We are not like that. People are our bosses and we act according to the will and wishes of Telangana people. We fought for the formation of Telangana."

"People can blindly drive away the Congress from the State by considering their three agendas- Removal of Dharani portal, scrapping Rythu Bandhu and providing only 3 hours of power supply in the State," said KCR who added that these baseless statements were the proof of Congress' vision.

Slamming the Congress Government for not sanctioning separate Statehood at the time of the 'Idli Sambar Go Back Movement', KCR added, "When Telangana people were against the merging of Telangana into Andhra, the then government didn't pay heed to people's demand and 7 students were shot dead. Telangana was forcibly merged into Andhra. Half of Telangana people migrated to other places for their livelihood."

KCR extensively spoke about the Congress Government being the main culprit for destroying the wealth of Telangana. He said, "People knew how the situation of Telangana was at the beginning of the formation of the State - no power, no water, weavers and farmers committed suicide. But today, BRS has transformed the State.

"Telangana has 10 billion tonnes of coal in the Singareni area. Earlier, no one had any stakes in the mining company. But, the Congress Government failed to run the company and gave 49 per cent of the total stake to the Centre," said KCR and told that people should ask the Congress leaders, "Who has the given nearly half of the total stake to the Centre? We fought for the welfare of Singareni employees back in 2014. After the formation of Telangana, we conducted meetings with Singareni employees and pushed the coal mining company into profits. The Congress Government shared only 18 per cent of the total profits but the BRS is giving nearly 32 per cent of profits to employees."

KCR then compared G Vivekananda as a 'suitcase leader' and added that there were leaders who switched loyalties at the time of elections, but Balka Suman who fought for separate statehood and worked for the welfare of his constituency, continued to work for the BRS. He asked people, "Will you believe in 'suitcase leaders' or will you trust Balka Suman?"

The Chief Minister then spoke about the significance of Chennur and said, "People of this area are intelligent and many protests took place. The development that took place over 10 years is known to the people and should assess what Congress has done during its ruling and how the State was transformed under BRS' Governance.

Explaining about 'Democratic Maturity', KCR said that, "If democratic maturity would have been in the country, then the people would have been in a better position. Our country is lacking 'democratic maturity'. The game doesn't end at a point where an MLA wins. The story actually begins there and the winning MLAs will form the Government. If power is vested in useless people, then the State will be ruined again. For the third time, elections are taking place in Telangana and people should choose their leader with much diligence."

The Chief Minister also took a jibe at Prime Minister Narendra Modi and the BJP government and added, "We have stopped the privatisation of coal mining company in our State," and further questioned the farmers, "What has the Congress done for the farmers? Does the grand old party ever think of implementing any welfare schemes in the State? But we have implemented Rythu Bandhu, Rythu Bhima and Dalit Bandhu."

KCR lambasted Uttam Kumar Reddy and Revanth Reddy for their comments on Dalit Bandhu and providing three-hour power supply in Telangana State respectively and said that the farmers would become victims again if the Congress Government came into power.

Explaining the importance of the Dharani portal, KCR added, "We are depositing Rythu Bandhu amounts into the farmer's accounts and it's possible only because of the Dharani portal. Congress leaders Revanth Reddy and Bhatti Vikramarka are saying that they will throw Dharani into the Bay of Bengal and if it happens then how will the Rythu Bandhu amounts will be deposited."

Reeling out the welfare programmes that are taking place in the state, KCR said, "BRS is the only Government which is providing power supply round the clock and KCR is the one who never step back to implement welfare schemes in the state. We are progressing in a phased manner and are coming up with many developmental programmes like constructing residential schools, colleges, irrigation projects, roads and many other schemes."