Telangana Rashtra Samithi (TRS) has observed that Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s public meeting held here on Sunday was highly disappointing as his address did not specify his plans for the country or for the State, but it purely revolved around Bharatiya Janata Party’s (BJP) desire to come to power in the State.
Not just the Prime Minister, but also other BJP bigwigs such as Union Home Minister Amit Shah too were engaged in spreading misinformation and lies as they had no facts to share about their (Centre’s) role in the development of Telangana for the last eight years, Minister for Finance and Health T. Harish Rao said here on Monday.
“Every BJP leader who spoke from the dais of the public meeting talked only about their urge to come to power in Telangana but none of them spoke about any scheme that is being implemented better in 18 States under their rule than in Telangana”, Harish Rao said and asked Mr. Shah and other Central leaders of the party to visit districts in Telangana to know how the TRS slogan of “neellu, nidhulu, niyamakaalu” (water, funds and jobs) is being realised.
But for better availability of water for irrigation by executing world’s largest Kaleshwaram lift project in a record time and completing several pending projects and other supportive measures such as revival of minor irrigation tanks, provision of 24×7 free power to about 30 lakh agriculture pump-sets, investment support given under Rythu Bandhu scheme at ₹5,000 per acre for two crop seasons a year and making available other inputs in time, how the production of foodgrains had multiplied in the State, he sought to know.
“Mr. Modi himself has acknowledged that the Centre had purchased paddy worth over ₹1 lakh crore during the last eight years. Is such a huge production of paddy possible without water. Telangana is second only to Punjab in paddy production now and last year the production was about 2.6 crore tonnes in two season”, the TRS leader explained. He mentioned that even NITI Aayog had recognised the efforts of Telangana government in turning around agriculture sector.
Stating that growth rate of agriculture sector in Telangana is highest in the country with the last seven year’s average of 10% against just 3% of the country, Mr. Harish Rao said during the last year it was a whopping 21% and the statistics were that of the NITI Aayog. He pointed out that the per capita income of Telangana is about four times higher that of the double-engine Uttar Pradesh as it was ₹2.78 lakh and ₹71,000, respectively, in 2021-22.
Mr. Harish Rao said people of Telangana were expecting that the Prime Minister would announce something for the State but he preferred purely in rhetoric.
