Hyderabad: The working president of the Bharat Rashtra Samithi (BRS) and former minister, KT Rama Rao while presenting the ‘Sweda Patra’ (sweat paper) to counter Congress’ white paper, at Telangana Bhavan on December 24 criticised the Congress government for its alleged attempts to ‘defame the rule of K Chandrashekar Rao (KCR) and the BRS party by manipulating numbers’.
KT Rama Rao said the white papers are “Congress’s planned efforts to skew public perception.” He highlighted inconsistencies in debts across various sectors such as TSRTC, electricity, and civil supplies in the ‘Sweda Patra’. He also presented a detailed progress report of Telangana over the last nine and a half years.
KTR also dismissed issued claims by Congress that the State’s gross debt was Rs 6.70 lakh crore, “The actual figure to be Rs 3.17 lakh crore,” he said.
Stating that Telangana progressed in the last 10 years, KTR said, “The per capita income grew from Rs 1,12,162 in 2014 to Rs 3,17,115 in 2023. Similarly, GSDP grew from Rs 4.51 lakh crore to Rs 13.27 lakh crore in 2023. During the formation of the state, 21.92% were poor, now poverty has reduced to 5.8%.”
“In the white paper by the Congress, the party said that the expenditure incurred by the KCR government in the last 10 years was Rs 13,72,930 crore. If true, then the BRS government spent in just 10 years of its rule almost three times what the previous governments in the last 65 years. However, they say that the BRS government did not work properly. Isn’t this proof that the Congress government has given false calculations in its white paper? Don’t you understand that their aim is to throw mud at BRS?” KTR asked.
During his presentation also responded to criticisms regarding the Kaleshwaram project, welcomed a judicial inquiry and defended the government’s achievements. “It has helped increase underground water levels and aided in the irrigation of 50 lakh acres,” he said, adding, “Congress government should focus on developing the state rather than engaging in revenge politics.”
BRS’s working president also responded to Congress’s claims about farmer suicides and said, “Since the formation of the state, 99.9% Rythu Bima (Farmers Group Life Insurance Scheme), beneficiaries experienced natural deaths.”
He also urged Congress to fulfil its promises within 100 days.
