Telangana BJP, on Monday, has caustically advised ruling ministers and MLAs of the ruling Telangana Rashtra Samithi (TRS) to visit Pakistan, Bangladesh or even the Taliban Afghanistan on “study tours” to understand how these countries were being governed.
Taking umbrage at Finance Minister T. Harish Rao’s reference to Bangladesh having a higher GDP when compared to India after the BJP came to power in Delhi, Dubbak MLA M. Raghunandan Rao said anyone who thinks neighbouring countries are doing better can see for themselves the living conditions there.
“If Bangladesh is so developed, why have one crore people crossed the border illegally recently? We are ready for an open debate on the TRS financial management and the Centre’s at either the Gun Park or the Dr. Marri Chenna Reddy HRD Institute,” he said, at a press conference.
Mr. Rao reiterated that the ruling TRS government has pushed the State into a debt trap and even the Comptroller & Auditor General of India (CAG) had clearly reported about the fiscal mismanagement here even as the Finance Minister had cleverly not disclosed the debt burden while boasting of high income in his press meet.
“Since TRS government claims Telangana to be a rich State with a surplus budget why can it not reduce the taxes on the petrol or diesel or even the gas cylinder prices when it has been getting a windfall of up to 40% from the same?” he asked. Similarly, he demanded Mr. Harish Rao explain why the government has been unable to pay salaries on time, not implementing the pay revision, pensions, loan waiver or the promised stipend to the unemployed youth.
The BJP leader charged the government of resorting to land sales, privatisation of the RTC services, contractors being denied payments and the hundreds of tenant farmers continuing to resorting to suicides.
“We are ready to show how the country has developed under Prime Minister Narendra Modi with the GDP increasing, per capita income rising and foreign exchange reserves reaching a high. The Centre has been diligently giving substantial portion of the tax receipts to the States,” he claimed.
Mr. Rao said as an Opposition Party, the BJP has every right to raise people’s concerns and bringing out into the open the various acts of omission and commissions of the government. “Let the government reply to the criticism in a spirit of democracy or correct the faults because finally it is for the people to decide,” he maintained.
Claiming that there was no differences between Union Minister Kishan Reddy or party president Bandi Sanjay Kumar, he said the rift within the TRS first family has been apparent. “Why does the Minister for Finance have “no entry” into Pragati Bhavan and why was he denied a ministry immediately after the last elections? He got rehabilitated only after the Dubbak debacle,” he added.
