Chief Minister and Telangana Rashtra Samithi (TRS) president K. Chandrasekhar Rao has asked the people to elect a non-BJP government at the Centre in 2024 to make BJP-mukt Bharat a reality so that free power could be given to agriculture, as being given in Telangana now, across the country.
Announcing his journey in national politics while addressing a public meeting after inaugurating an integrated district offices complex and TRS office at Nizamabad on Monday, he said he was taking the decision with the acceptance of people to send the anti-people, undemocratic and communal government of BJP packing by joining forces with all like-minded parties and voices rooting for a democratic and secular rule in the country.
He asked the people to understand what was happening around them, think and take decisions for going ahead, stating that a small mistake and ignorance committed by the then leaders of Telangana had led to forcible merger of the region into Andhra. “It took 60 years to regain the statehood with the sacrifice of lives by several youths in different phases of the movement and Telangana had suffered badly in all spheres in the migrant leaders’ rule,” he reminded them.
Mr. Chandrasekhar Rao explained that Telangana had one of the world’s major irrigation projects, Nizamsagar, at the time of the country’s independence as the farmers of combined Nizamabad irrigated most of their land. However, in combined Andhra Pradesh the project was neglected and farmers were denied water. “With Kaleshwaram water reaching Singur project soon, there won’t be any cultivable land left unirrigated in combined Nizamabad,” he stated.
Turning to BJP again, the TRS chief said the Narendra Modi government had written off ₹ 12 lakh crore debt of corporate bigwigs by branding them as NPAs (non-performing assets). However, he was unwilling to give ₹ 1.45 lakh crore a year for providing free power to the agriculture sector, including for lifting of water as it was consuming only 20.8% of total energy consumed in the country. Moreover, BJP wants fixing of meters to farm power connections.
He asked the people to fix the party that was talking of fixing meters to farm power connections and withdrawing all welfare schemes, calling them freebies. No other State in the country was giving welfare schemes to the poor, women and students like Telangana was doing including free 24x7 power and life insurance cover to farmers, Dalit Bandhu for uplifting downtrodden communities.
The crowd at the public meeting responded with a “no” when he asked whether they wanted to forgo the benefits they are getting now, whether the canals being constructed see flow of water or blood as being thought of by communal forces and a “yes” when asked about sending home the BJP government that was toppling non-BJP governments in States.
