Harish demolishes Amit’s charges

​Hyderabad: Taking strong exception to the remarks made by BJP national president Amit Shah that the KCR government was scared of Owaisi, Minister for Irrigation T Harish Rao on Sunday said that Amit Shah should first know the history before levelling all kinds of allegations against KCR.

Addressing a press conference here, Harish Rao said that the Telangana State had become a reality only because KCR had never feared anyone and fought against all those who were opposed to bifurcation of the State.Referring to the claims made by Amit Shah that the Centre had given Rs 90,000 crore to the State, Rao said the BJP president was known for making false claims.

Stating that the Centre had given only Rs 45,000 crore, Harish Rao said the Centre did not make any special allocation. “What the State has got was what was due to it in the normal course. In fact, the quantum of taxes which the Centre gets from the State are much more than what the Centre had given to the State,” he said.

Harish Rao said that the BJP government at the Centre had given special package to the neighbouring State of Andhra Pradesh but did nothing for Telangana. He demanded that the NDA government should also give similar benefits to the new State.

The Centre has also assured to complete the Polavaram project with 100 per cent funds from the Centre. But when it comes to Telangana, it has not considered any project as national project so far,” he added.

Though the State government had allocated land for railway zone at Kazipet, the Centre had not sanctioned it, Harish Rao said. “The Centre was also dragging its feet in the matter of division of High Court. The much talked about ITIR project also seems to be in limbo,” he said.

Amit Shah should first answer all these questions before making baseless allegations against the TRS and KCR,” he said, stating that Shah should note that Telangana was a happening State and that the TRS government was getting awards from the Centre.

The Minister alleged that the BJP was trying to provoke people in the name of celebration of Liberation Day. “We are against the politics of dividing people based on religion. That is why the TRS’ agenda is different from BJP. Secularism is the second name of Telangana but BJP was against secularism,” he said.

Harish Rao said going back on their promises was the habit of BJP and not the TRS party. “The BJP had passed a resolution on ‘one vote two states’ in 1991 but despite being in power at the Centre in the past it did not keep up its word.

It promised to construct Ram temple in Ayodhya but had put the issue on backburner once it came to power. That is the track record of BJP,” Rao said. Referring to the criticism of engineering defections, Harish Rao said that the BJP should first answer why they resorted to defections in Arunachal Pradesh and destabilised the elected government. They were pulled by the Supreme Court for their acts, he added.