Congress, TDP to dig up records of 50 yrs

​Hyderabad: Year 2019 is round the corner, if not very far, when it comes to rudderless parties in the State. Opposition parties like the Congress and the TTDP are now working on an innovative strategy to consolidate their base among the masses by harking back to identified major beneficiaries of every welfare and developmental scheme implemented under various dispensations over the past five decades, particularly BCs, SCs and STs.

The whole idea is to reap benefits by highlighting their own track record ahead of the next general election and thereby neutralize the efforts of the Telangana Rashtra Samithi to arrogate to itself the credit for all progress achieved till date.

The opposition parties are identifying specific beneficiaries of various welfare schemes that were launched when these parties were in power in the undivided Andhra Pradesh Even though the Assembly elections are 30 months away, the opposition parties have devised the strategy titled ‘Mission 2019’ to strengthen the party base among voters in Telangana.

Perhaps for the first time in the country, these parties are consolidating the lists of beneficiaries of every welfare and developmental programme implemented during the respective governments over the last 50 years.

As the TRS has been making use of every opportunity to propagate its schemes targeting every community, the opposition parties want to reach out to the identified beneficiaries of all age groups living in rural and urban areas.

The Telangana Congress party has instructed all the leaders to prepare lists of beneficiaries of all flagship programmes sponsored by State as well as Union governments, from the Indira Gandhi regime onwards to 2014.

It includes the Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Scheme, Indira Awas Yojana, Indiramma Housing, Fee reimbursement, Rajiv Arogya Sri, farmer loan waiver scheme, health and community drinking water projects, irrigation development, establishment of professional educational institutions etc.

TPCC president N Uttam Kumar Reddy said that the party had already obtained from some districts details of many beneficiaries of welfare programmes taken up during the Congress rule. It was now in the process of constituting district party committees in the newly formed districts. Once that process was over, the party would take up intensified drive and compile complete data by the end of February.

The focus would be on Backward Classes, SC and ST communities, which, according to the TPCC president, were among the major beneficiaries. During this drive, they would also rightfully claim credit for having taken a historic decision to carve separate Telangana State. So far the party has not been able to cash in on this issue.

TDP Telangana unit president L Ramana said that the party had already compiled the data pertaining to people who had developed socially, economically and politically during the TDP rule in the State.

He said that backward communities in Telangana had got new political life after NTR came to power in 1983 in the united Andhra Pradesh. Many of the neglected communities could enter active politics.

Many highly subsidised schemes like Rs 2- a-kg rice, housing and self employment programmes were introduced by NTR and were continued by N Chandrababu Naidu’s government in the latter part of TDP rule.

He said the data would be used to analyze the socio- economic conditions of people at village level and the parties would offer to launch new schemes for the benefit of these sections if voted to power.