Hyderabad: Telangana Pradesh Congress Committee (TPCC) Treasurer Gudur Narayana Reddy has strongly condemned Finance Minister T. Harish Rao for his highly objectionable remarks against the Congress party.
Narayana Reddy said that the Congress party has been playing the role of a constructive opposition by raising genuine questions in the public interest. However, TRS Ministers and leaders have been targeting the Congress party to divert people’s attention from their failures.
“Chief Minister Chandrashekhar Rao and all his ministers have become masters in deceiving the common people with false promises and fake claims. Whenever they fail to answer the questions being raised by the people, they blame the Congress party for weird reasons,” he said.
Narayana Reddy claimed that it was only after Congress party’s objection on salary cut for all employees, TRS Government modified the order and exempted staff of Health, Police, sanitation, Gram Panchayat and a few other departments from the order.
A cash incentive was announced only after Congress leaders made the demand. He said Congress leaders were fully justified in saying that TRS Government did not extend the promised support to poor people.
“Harish Rao himself admitted that 12 kg rice per person for White Ration Card holders has been distributed to only 87% of beneficiaries. It clearly means that more than 10 lakh BPL families were yet to get the rice which was promised to them on March 22. Similarly, Rs. 1500 per family was transferred to the accounts only on April 14.
Will CM KCR or Harish Rao explain how nearly 87 lakh BPL families would have managed for the last 24 days without food, work or money?” he asked while adding that nothing has been given or even promised with people not having White Ration Cards, middle class, employees of private firms or workers of unorganised sectors.
He said instead of apologising to the poor people for delay, TRS leaders were trying to divert their attention by giving political statements.
The Congress leader also disputed the Finance Minister’s claim of State Government spending Rs. 3,147 crore to combat Coronavirus and asked him to place the entire break-up of expenditure in public domain. “TRS Govt had neglected the Health Sector ever since it came to power. Expenditure on health was reduced every year and only Rs. 6,187 Crore were allocated in the budget of Rs. 1,82,914 crore for the year 2020-21 which comes to nearly 3.38% of total expenditure.
Telangana was always on bottom three out of 29 States in spending on public health. The situation would have been different now if TRS Govt would have made some investments on health infrastructure in the last six-and-a-half years,” he said.
Narayana Reddy pointed out that all hospitals wherein Coronavirus patients are being treated now were established by the previous Congress regimes. Further, the staff and infrastructure in those hospitals were deployed during the Congress Governments.
“TRS Govt did not construct a single hospital in the last six years to improve healthcare system,” he said while reminding them TRS, in its manifesto for 2014 elections, had promised to establish a Super Speciality Hospital in each district headquarters.
Narayana Reddy alleged that Harish Rao has no clue about the impact of Coronavirus and lockdown on Telangana’s economy. “Is it not strange that Finance Minister Harish Rao and Home Minister Mahmood Ali were not present in a single review meeting held by the Chief Minister on Coronavirus and lockdown situation although the issue is directly related with their departments? Health Minister Etala Rajender too is completely clueless and even unaware of actual number of cases.
Three different figures were circulated on Monday. While a press release from the CMO said there were 32 new cases, the Union Health Ministry had put the figure at 58 till 5 pm. But the Medical Bulletin has put the figure at 61. These contradictions in numbers clearly show that TRS Govt was mishandling the situation,” he said.
“CM KCR and his ministers are only good at abusing the opposition parties, cursing the media and cheating the common people.
They seem to have no value for human lives, needs of the poor and hungry or concern for self-respect of common people. It is highly unfortunate that a Telangana is having a Home Minister who can’t enter CMO’s gate without permission, a Finance Minister who portrays failures as achievements, a Health Minister who’s has no idea or control over his department and a Chief Minister who is not concerned about the sufferings of crores of people,” he said.