Congress deflates Governor speech

Leader of Opposition in Council Shabbir Ali says the Chief Minister is more focused on encouraging defections than development

• Speech termed directionless
• CM KCR accused of being obsessed with defections

Hyderabad: Leader of Opposition in the Legislative Council Mohammed Ali Shabbir alleged that Chief Minister K Chandrashekar Rao was more focused on encouraging defections in Opposition parties than concentrating on developing the State.

Speaking during the Motion of Thanks on Governor’s Address in Legislative Council on Saturday, Shabbir Ali said instead of achieving the goal of ‘Bangaru Telangana’, the Chief Minister was spending more time on offering Telangana Rashtra Samithi (TRS) ‘khanduvas’ to legislators of Opposition parties.

He said the dominance of politics over development was clearly reflected in the address by Governor E S L Narasimhan to the joint session of Assembly and Council on March 10. He said the Governor’s address neither sounded like the ‘progress report’ of the TRS government, nor it served like a ‘vision document’. “It was a completely directionless speech by the Governor,” he said amid strong protest by the members of Treasury benches.

Shabbir Ali also slammed the Governor for skipping the issue of Telangana martyrs in his speech. This triggered protest by the TRS members who alleged that the Leader of Opposition was raising a subject which was irrelevant to the Governor’s address. Defending his stand, Shabbir Ali said Telangana became a reality due to the supreme sacrifices made by the martyrs and the TRS government had comfortably neglected their families.

“Most of the families were not even given the promised Rs. 10 lakh compensation. The collectors have wrongly claimed that they could not find the addresses of martyrs’ families. The Chief Minister himself had admitted that nearly 2,000 people laid down their lives for statehood cause, but the State government has so far identified only about 480 martyrs. Is this the way we should treat our martyrs?” he asked.

Shabbir Ali said the pact with Maharashtra on construction of barrages over the Godavari was neither historic nor exemplary. He said similar pacts were signed in 1975, 1980, 2012 and now in 2016. He said that the government had raised the cost of the project from Rs 38,000 crore to Rs 83,000 crore while the ayacut remained at 16 lakh acres. At this rate, he said the project would cost nearly Rs 5 lakh per acre while Rs 73,000 per acre would be required for their maintenance.

Shabbir Ali also accused the State government of burdening the people by increasing the power tariff. He said the government had failed to add a single MW of power since its formation and all projects being commissioned now were initiated during the Congress regime.

Speaking about 2BHK housing, Shabbir Ali said the State government had not constructed even 1,000 houses while it had been making false claims of sanctioning 60,000 units. Likewise, he said the health sector in the State was in extremely bad shape and the Governor's address failed to make a mention on real status.

While the existing hospitals were struggling for want of doctors, medicines, equipment and other facilities, the promise of having super-specialty hospitals in all district remained unfulfilled, he said. Participating in the debate in the Assembly, Congress member G Chinna Reddy said the Governor’s address had left them confused. While the Governor said that the bifurcation was unjustified while delivering his joint address to AP Assembly, here he said bifurcation helped in heralding a new era.

He said the Governor’s speech also lacked the spirit and he did not mention about the severe drought conditions in the State, farmer suicides, fee reimbursement, 12 per cent reservation to Muslims and tribals, land distribution to Dalits , district reorganisation, KG-to-PG education scheme and other promises made by Chief Minister K Chandrashekar Rao.

Taking potshots at the TRS over encouraging defections from Opposition parties, the Congress leader cautioned Chandrasekhar Rao that at this rate the “TRS boat will sink if influxes goes beyond the permitted levels.” He sought to know the reasons for admitting Opposition legislators in to the ruling party which already had a comfortable majority in the Assembly.

The Congress leader said curtailing the access to Government Orders, restrictions on media and the decrease in the number of functioning days in the Budget Session gave an impression that the TRS government allowed ‘limited democracy’ in the State.

Reddy raised strong objections on reducing the height of Tummidihatti and Medigadda barrages on the Godavari in the agreement entered with Maharashtra recently. He demanded to safeguard Telangana interests by increasing the project heights.