Hyderabad: Telangana Chief Minister K Chandrashekhar Rao on Saturday reiterated the State government’s decision to pass a resolution against Citizenship Amendment Act (CAA)and National Population Registry (NPR). KCR has also assured to take up a detailed discussion on CAA and NPR before the Assembly passed a resolution opposing their implementation.
Meanwhile, Telangana Today said, Chief Minister K Chandrashekhar Rao on Saturday tore into opposition allegations on State programs, took the Centre head-on over the CAA-NPR-NRC imbroglio, allayed fears about coronavirus posing a threat to the State and spoke at length about the rapid strides made by Telangana on all fronts in the past six years.
In a 140-minute reply to the discussion on the motion of thanks to the Governor’s address in the State Assembly, the Chief Minister, who peppered his speech with wit and humour, trained his guns on the BJP government at the Centre for taking up the contentious CAA-NPR-NRC issue instead of focusing more on important issues in the wake of the economic downtrend that had impacted the entire country.
Assuring the House that the government would take up discussion and then pass a resolution opposing the implementation of the CAA and NPR, he said every political party has a clear stand on the issue as a Constitutional right. “Let us pass the resolution on CAA and NPR to express the views of the people of the State to the Centre and wait for its final decision on the issue,” he said, and pointed out that even he was among the lakhs of Indians who were not in possession of birth certificates. “If they ask me to produce my father’s certificates now, where will I get them from?” he asked.
Chandrashekhar Rao’s reply was preceded by the suspension of all the six Congress members for a day when they tried to disrupt his speech. The Chief Minister, while castigating the opposition members for raising baseless allegations without being in a position to prove them, also sought the expulsion of Komatireddy Rajagopal Reddy. The Munugode Congress legislator made the cardinal mistake of alleging that none of the villages in his constituency had received Mission Bhagiratha water, this after he put his signature to a report that said all the 334 habitations in his constituency were beneficiaries of the flagship programme.
“The opposition can’t misuse the freedom that the House gives them to raise issues. When you raise an allegation, you should prove it or be prepared to perish,” he said, adding: “Kab tak ulloo banathe? (How long will you fool people).”
Turning to the State’s progress, the Chief Minister said that thanks to the various irrigation projects and 24×7 power supply, agriculture yield in the State had taken a quantum leap since 2014, industrial growth was zooming north and people were more than happy with the implementation of scores of welfare schemes that was reflected in the results of election after election.
The silver lining is that Telangana was doing quite well on all fronts despite the impact of the economic slowdown on the State, the Chief Minister said, adding that the government was committed to keep its promise of making the farmer a king.