Hyderabad: TRS mocks BJP's Mission of winning all ST seats

Hyderabad: Several TRS leaders on Thursday mocked the State BJP's Mission-12 of winning all the ST reserved seats and threw a challenge to it to save deposits in the constituencies.

The TRS leaders, including Minister Satyavati Rathod, Rythu Bandhu Samiti chairman Palla Rajeshwar Reddy, MP M Kavitha, MLAs Ravinder Naik and Haripriya Naik, lashed out at the BJP leadership for its comments of fighting for the cause of STs on the 'podu lands'.

Rathod questioned whom the BJP would fight with. "The forest laws are with the Centre and the lands come under the jurisdiction of the Government of India. The Centre frames the laws and the State implements them. The BJP leaders are confusing farmers", she said, alleging that it was the saffron party which was doing injustice to tribals. She said the Centre kept mum on the resolution passed by the Assembly to increase reservations to STs.

Rajeshwar Reddy said the State government was trying to solve problems of tribal farmers. Already four lakh farmers have given applications for 13 lakh acres of land. The AP CM YS Jaganmohan Reddy has requested the Centre to take December 13, 2005, as the cut-off date for finalising land ownership. but there is no response from the Centre.

Abusing State BJP chief Bandi Sanjay for his comments against the State government, MP Kavitha said the BJP leaders should accept her challenge of getting deposits in the ST reserved seats. She wanted the BJP leaders to speak on STs only after getting the Bayyaram steel factory, Rs 1,000 crore fund for the Samakka Jatara and Tribal University for the State.