Anti-incumbency wave blowing against BRS: Shabbir

Kamareddy: Former Minister Mohammed Ali Shabbir on Tuesday claimed that an anti-incumbency wave against BRS governments blowing across the State and it would bring Congress party back to power in the next Assembly elections.

He was speaking to media persons at Congress district headquarters after participating in the 'Haath Se Haath Jodo' campaign in several areas of Kamareddy on Tuesday.

TPCC Mahila Congress president Sunitha Rao and many senior leaders also participated in the padayatra.

Shabbir Ali said that the 'Haath Se Haath Jodo' campaign has been receiving tremendous response across the State. "The main intention of the 'Haath Se Haath Jodo' campaign was to carry the message of unity and brotherhood given by Congress leader Rahul Gandhi through his Bharat Jodo Yatra. When we started meeting people during door-to-door padayatra and had interactions with the people, we observed that a huge anti-incumbency feeling is brewing among them. They are not happy with the performance of both the BRS and BJP governments," he said.

The Congress leader said that the BRS government completely failed to fulfill the aspirations of the people of Telangana. "None of the promises made to the people by Chief Minister K Chandrashekar Rao in either 2014 or 2018 were fulfilled. The implementation of welfare schemes was only symbolic. However, using unethical marketing tactics, it was highlighted as if Telangana has emerged as a model State," he said.

Citing examples, Shabbir Ali said that about 40 lakh people in Telangana, including nearly 24-25 lakh qualified youth registered with the Telangana Public Service Commission (TSPSC), were jobless. Instead of taking measures to tackle the problem of unemployment, KCR government is creating hype about filling 1.30 lakh vacancies despite the fact more than 1 lakh posts are still vacant. "KCR had promised in the 2018 elections that his government will give an unemployment allowance of Rs 3,016 per month to all jobless youth. He did not honour the promise and today he is afraid of even seeking the applications as he knows that at least 25-30 lakh jobless youth will apply exposing his claims on job creation," he said.

Shabbir Ali said as against the requirement of nearly 23 lakh housing units for the poor, the BRS Govt did not hand over even one lakh double bed room houses among beneficiaries. Telangana's spending on health and education was extremely low although BRS government is trying to create hype around 'Basti Dawakhanas'.

He said the BRS government did not start anything new but only renamed the Prime Health Centres established by previous Congress regimes. The same strategy was adopted for the drinking water scheme. More than 90% of Telangana areas had access to safe drinking water through taps at the time of its formation. However, the BRS government applied a new paint to the tanks and reservoirs constructed by previous Congress regimes and named them as 'Mission Bhagiratha'.

The Congress leader said that people have realised that both BRS and BJP were cheating them with fake promises, false claims and misleading slogans.

He said both PM Modi and CM KCR showed loans as 'income' to show inflated figures of growth. "As pointed out by Rahul Gandhi Ji, BJP Govt followed the policy of 'Hum Do (PM Modi - Amit Shah) helped Hamare Do (Adani & Ambani)' to handover the country's resources into the hands of a few industrialists. Similarly, except for the KCR family and their close associates, no section of the society benefited after the formation of Telangana," he said.

Shabbir Ali said that the 'Haath Se Haath Jodo' campaign has enabled Congress leaders and workers to understand the immediate needs of the people. He said that the Congress party, if voted to power in the next elections would provide a cooking gas cylinder for Rs. 500 as it is being done in Congress-ruled Rajasthan. Similarly, crop loans up to Rs 2 lakhs will be waived off in a single take.