Hyderabad: Telangana Rashtra Samithi (TRS) MLC K Kavitha on Wednesday said that pictures of the Prime Minister were never put up outside ration shops. She was referring to the ongoing issue of union finance minister Nirmala Sitharaman demanding that flexi boards of Prime Minister Modi be put up outside shops.
“The union finance minister came to Telangana. It is good that she came, we are happy to receive guests. But she went to a ration shop and picked a fight with the collector about the Prime Minister’s pictures not being put up,” said the MLC. She was addressing a crowd in Nizamabad after the distribution of Aasra pensions along with Nizamabad Urban Mla Ganesh Gupta.
She added that in the history of the country, never were Prime Ministers’ pictures put up outside PDS shops. “Not in Nehru’s time, Manmohan Singh or even Vajpayee, no one has had their pictures put up,” she said.
She then said, “Sitharaman ji, if you want the Prime Minister’s pictures to be put up, we will surely do so. We will put them up on gas cylinders, packets of urea, petrol and diesel stations, oil and dal packets. Wherever the costs are rising, we will put up pictures of Prime Minister Narendra Modi,” she said.
Earlier, Sitharaman had controversially demanded the presence of Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s images outside the PDS centres during her visit to Telangana. TRS leaders were quick to criticise her demand, with state finance minister Harish Rao calling it ‘laughable.’
Sitharaman took her stand on Saturday, and stated, “Previously, there was no accountability. A scheme would be designed such that the Centre pays 60% and the state pays 40%. The state would not pay their share and would demand more money from the Centre. Now, The Modi government has digitised everything, and taxpayers’ money is not wasted anywhere. Can we not ask for credit where it is due?” she asked.
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