Hyderabad: Bharat Rashtra Samithi (BRS) working president and IT minister KT Rama Rao urged party members to hold protests on Friday in all district headquarters throughout the state in response to the Center’s claims over the diversion of Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Act (MGNREGA) funds in Telangana.
He urged farmers to participate in the demonstrations and demanded an explanation from the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP)-led Union government as to why building crop drying platforms in Telangana under the scheme could be considered against the rules while building fish drying platforms in other states was justified.
KTR said in a statement that the BJP was treating Telangana unfairly despite the state government implementing numerous farmer welfare programs. He emphasized that Telangana was the first state to provide drying platforms for farmers in order to benefit from them.
“The BJP is plainly seeking vengeance and hell-bent on damaging the image of the Telangana government among the people, rather than acknowledging the good work,” he questioned.
KTR reminded the audience that the BRS as well as the state government have been repeatedly requesting the Union government to link the MGNREGA with agricultural works and ensure optimum utilization of the scheme.
However, there has been no response from the Center, which is now keen to weaken the scheme that was providing lifesaving services for scores of people across the country.
“The BJP did nothing to help farmers, and when the BRS government launched various ground-breaking measures, it refused to acknowledge its mistakes. The Telangana government is being targeted by the BJP because it cannot compete with the state in terms of agricultural growth,” he added.
