Emergency like situation is prevailing in Telangana: Kishan Reddy

Hyderabad : The Telangana State Legislative Assembly witnessed heated exchanges between BJP floor leader G. Kishan Reddy and Deputy Chief Minister Kadiam Srihari and Legislative Affairs Minister T. Harish Rao on Wednesday.

Kishan Reddy alleged that Emergency like situation was prevailing in the State with all the sections of the society having a feel of lack of democracy. He alleged that the government was intimidating the media, subjecting political leaders to arrests, suspending and expelling the opposition members from Assembly for speaking against the government. There was unrest among unemployed youth, government employees, farmers and journalists. There is no freedom to conduct dharna and protest. Dharna chowk has been removed with the intention for not allowing people to protest, he said.

When the BJP leader was saying this, the Deputy CM, Legislative Affairs Minister and other TRS members tried to stop him. Intervening on the issue, Kadiam Srihari said that the BJP member shoudl also speak about Modi Government attacking minorities in all parts of the country and not giving any funds to the State Government.

The BJP leader's remarks led to furore by TRS members and Kishan Reddy got angry when the Speaker also tried to stop him. He said he has not named anyone in his speech, but the Deputy CM named Prime Minister Modi. He asked Kadiam to prove the attacks on minorities and said he was prepared to give details of funds released by the Center to Telangana. He said if the ruling party has no patience to hear criticism, he was ready to walk out.

Participating in the Motion of Thanks on Governor's Speech, Kishan Reddy pointed out that the Governor address has been reduced from 29 pages of last year to 18 pages this year, which means there was reduction in the functioning of government and also there was reduction in the strength of the House. He said that the Central Government has sanctioned two lakh houses for the poor in the State. Where are those houses? Has any construction been done? Double bed room scheme has remained only on paper since last 4 years. There is no mention of giving 3 acres of land to the SC and STs. Last four years have been wasted on redesigning and retendering of the irrigation projects just for escalating the cost and not a single project has been completed. In last 65 years, the debt was only Rs. 65,000 crores. But it crossed Rs. 2 lakh crore in the last four years.

Kishan Reddy said that the TRS Government has failed to recognise the services of people who struggle for Telangana State. In the flow of his speech, when Kishan Reddy asked TRS members to join the BJP, the Speaker has cut the mike.