Laxman rubbishes KTR charges

Hyderabad: Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) State unit president K Laxman on Thursday lashed out at Information Technology Minister K T Rama Rao for making baseless charges against the Centre. Rama Rao charged that the Centre is neglecting the interests of Telangana State.

Addressing media here on Thursday, he said the State could not get Rs 10,000 crore from the Centre as it failed to give matching grants. Similarly, it was due to the negligence of the State government that the State could only get Rs 5,000 crore, he added. 

Dismissing the allegations of Rama Rao that the Centre had neglected the interests of the State in the recently tabled Union Budget for the financial year 2018-19, Laxman said, “it represents Rama Rao’s lack of understanding about the Budget and it would not go well for an educated person to talk like an illiterate.” Laxman demanded that Rama Rao disclose the quantum of funds released by the State government to the panchayats other than those released from the Centre. 

Laxman said Chief Minister K Chandrashekar Rao had been running a dynasty rule in Telangana with his governance akin to the Nizam. He said Rama Rao’s anguish over the Union Budget was that it would not come handy to the TRS government to fill the coffers of the contractors. “The Centre had allocated enough funds to the railway projects in Telangana.

But, the roads of Hyderabad showcase the governance of the TRS rule,” he said. Referring to Rama Rao’s demand for the BJP to explain why former Union Minister Bandaru Dattatreya was dropped from the Union cabinet, Laxman in return asked Rama Rao to explain why the TRS dropped former Deputy Chief Minister Rajaiah from the State cabinet.

He said the medical education in the State had been suffering due to the negligence of the State government. On the political front, Laxman said discontent is brewing among the Ministers and MLAs in the ruling party and the TRS is a water bubble that is ready to go off anytime.

He said the Congress had been resorting to murky politics in the State. Both the Congress and the TRS have been examples of corruption, he alleged. The BJP leader said the Congress had been losing its existence in every State, as people gave cleared mandate in favour of BJP in 19 States. Strength of the Congress among the people will become clear after Karnataka State Assembly elections, he pointed out.