hyderabad
In a move to take the ruling Bharat Rashtra Samithi (BRS) in Telangana head-on, All India Congress Committee (AICC) president Mallikarjun Kharge on Sunday announced ₹15,000 per acre per year benefit to both landholding and tenant farmers, ₹12,000 per year to farm workers and ₹500 per quintal bonus to paddy in addition to minimum support price.
Naming the party’s guarantee to the farming community of Telangana as ‘Rythu Bharosa’, Mr.Kharge said it would be a game-changer in State politics and do a world of good to farmers, including tenants and farm workers. Alleging that Chief Minister K. Chandrasekhar Rao says a lot but does nothing, he said the Congress party on the other hand would stand by every word, be it Rythu Bharosa and other guarantees, after coming to power in Telangana.
Speaking at the public meeting ‘Vijaya Bheri’ organised on the outskirts of the c, he said the Congress party had given statehood to Telangana in spite of knowing well that it could cost it power in Andhra Pradesh. The AICC chief said the party had given in to the long-felt demand of the people of Telangana and not for votes.
He stated that September 17, 1948, was the Independence Day for the people of Telangana, Hyderabad-Karnataka and Marathwada, as against August 15 (1947) for the people of other parts in the country. Congress party had struggled hard to develop the Telangana area by establishing industries to provide employment to locals after it was merged with the Indian Union.
Mr. Kharge accused the BRS government in Telangana of leaving the State bankrupt with a debt burden of ₹3.66 lakh crore in nine years from the position of having surplus budget at the time of State formation. He accused both Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Chief Minister K.Chandrasekhar Rao of pushing the public sector undertakings into debt as part of their plans to privatise them.
He pointed out that it was the Modi government that helped corporate bank defaulters escape the country after availing ₹40,000 crore loans from various banks and was now helping them live a lavish life overseas. Stating that Mr.Modi would always lie to people, he sought to know from those who attended the meeting if anybody of them had received ₹15 lakh each in their bank accounts as the PM had promised to do after retrieving the black money stashed in overseas banks.
Mr. Kharge said it was the Congress that had made the food security legislation to allow the poor get food grains at a nominal price. Similarly, the Central and State governments were also not allocating budget to SCs, STs based on their population. He said he had complete belief in the people of Telangana that they would bring Congress back to power in the next elections for better future.
