Hyderabad: Bharat Rashtra Samithi (BRS) leaders slammed prime minister Narendra Modi for his remarks on Telangana during his visit to the city on Saturday and said that the PM came here to spill poison.
State finance minister T Harish Rao said that PM Narendra Modi came to Telangana not to lay the foundation stone for development projects but to spill poison and echoing his sentiments, other BRS leaders and ministers also criticized PM.
Reacting to Modi’s statements about the state’s non-cooperation with Central projects, Harish said “Every word is far from the truth. Playing so many lies as the Prime Minister is worth it to him.”
“It is ridiculous for Modi to say that the state government is not cooperating with the Centre. Actually, the situation is reversed. Centre is not giving any support to Telangana by not sanctioning a tribal university, railway coach factory, Bayyaram steel industry, medical colleges, and nursing colleges,” Harish Rao said.
The minister said that Modi’s ‘Parivarvaad’ claims were to divert people’s attention from the Adani issue.
“Since the formation of Telangana, Aasara pension and Rythu Bandhu has been directly deposited in the beneficiary’s account. It is a big lie to say that Direct Benefit Transfer (DBT) started because of him,” said the finance minister.
He said that the Pradhan Mantri Kisan Samman Nidhi scheme is a copy of Rythu Bandhu. “It is a shame to claim that farmers benefited for the first time because of the PM Kisan scheme. How much of a help is the scheme compared to Rythu Bandhu?” added Harish Rao.
“Information Technology Investment Region (ITIR) has been moved to Bangalore, an arbitration centre was set up in Gujarat immediately after Telangana did it and farmers were troubled while rice grains were not purchased from Telangana. Is it not your government that has done all this?” Harish Rao asked Modi.
Speaking about the PM remarks, BRS leader and animal husbandry minister Talasani Srinivas Yadav said, “What did the Central government even give Telangana that they are calling the state government inhibitory towards development projects?”
Yadav said that he is ready to debate with the PM over the state’s development.
“If Telangana has not achieved any development, why is the Centre bestowing so many of the awards on the state? Isn’t Telangana at the top in per capita income? I demand Modi make it clear whether Telangana has 24 hour electricity or not,” said the BRS minister.
Talking about the absence of the chief minister at Saturday’s events Yadav said, “Modi was the first one to unveil the protocol violation. The last time the PM visited the state, he was the one who asked KCR not to come”.
Yadav said that if the PM only wanted to scold the state government, he could have done so from Delhi itself, instead of coming all the way to Hyderabad and creating inconvenience to thousands of city residents.
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