Telangana Congress committee president A. Revanth Reddy has said that Chief Minister K. Chandrasekhar Rao had fallen into a trap of his own misdeeds and raised a chorus from public at a rally at Raviryal on city outskirts whether he should be punished or let off.
Mr. Reddy said it was obvious now that Mr. Rao would go to public only when elections were around. This time Mr. Rao is out to garner the votes of SCs and STs in Huzurabad by-election. It is in the hands of voters of Huzurabad to script a new history for Telangana. Mr. Rao is sure to bite the dust in polls, said Mr. Reddy.
Addressing the rally of Congress as part of its Girijan - Dalit Dandora series, Mr. Reddy said his appointment to his present post by the Congress leadership a month ago is a wake-up call for Mr. Rao. Mr. Rao aggressively campaigned highlighting ₹10 lakh support scheme for SCs under the Dalit Bandhu scheme. “But, will that ₹10 lakh end with one by-election?”, Mr. Reddy asked.
He called for power vested with Congress for SCs and STs to access real justice. Otherwise, these sections got a raw deal in the seven-year rule of TRS, Mr. Reddy said.
Citing examples, Mr. Reddy recalled that an upright IAS officer belonging to SC community, K. Pradeep Chandra, retired from service within a month of serving as the Chief Secretary whereas other civil servants like Rajeev Sharma, S.K. Joshi and Anurag Sharma, who belonged to upper castes, were given extension after they superannuated.
Another IAS officer of SC community, A. Murali, resigned his job after he was humiliated by the government. More recently, R.S. Praveen Kumar of the same section also quit despite having six years of service left, Mr. Reddy said.
Mr. Reddy made light of the appointment of a SC officer Rahul Bojja in the Chief Minister’s Office saying it’s nothing but vote bank politics. Mr. Rao actually has contempt for weaker sections which is evident from the difference in the manner he paid respects to President Ramnath Kovind who is an SC and former President Pranab Mukherjee or former Governor E.S.L. Narasimhan who belonged to upper castes, Mr. Reddy alleged.
The SCs and STs are distant from education during the TRS rule. Their livelihoods were also disrupted. For instance, 8,632 acres out of 20,000 acres allotted to Pharma City at Yacharam were assigned lands of SCs which they got during Congress government. They were acquired from assignees at ₹8 lakh an acre and sold to investors in the Pharma City at ₹2 crore an acre, he alleged. Mr. Reddy arrived at the venue of the public meeting to boisterous response from public. He came from airport in a procession standing on an open top jeep along with Congress in-charge of State Manickam Tagore and two other observers Bose Raju and Srinivasan. The crowd stood ground despite rain even before Mr. Reddy spoke.
