KCR silences Opposition

    One lakh jobs would be filled
    Welfare schemes to all the poor
    No compromise on State interests
    Rs 83,000 cr for Pranahita-Chevella justified

Silencing the Opposition on its ballyhoo over various issues of the state, Telangana Chief Minister K Chandrasekhar Rao on Sunday emphatically stated that under his rule the State was making rapid strides in development in all the sectors and construction of irrigation projects was much underway and promises made to the people were kept by 99 per cent.

In his two and hours of marathon speech which is laced with facts, figures, data and information, Chandrasekhar Rao has once again proved that there is no match to him in the Opposition. He made it a point to dismiss the Opposition allegations, charges as baseless and armed with proper information, he pinned them to the mat.

Refuting the allegations that the government has failed to fill vacant posts in the government, he said that government would fill one lakh posts in the government departments at any cost in next two or three years. Announcing the priorities of the government in the next financial year, he said that government would extend Kalyana Laxmi scheme to BCs, economically backward sections of upper castes, and would supply fine rice to the inmates of university and college hostels.

Putting the objections of the opposition over Mission Bhagiratha to rest, Chandrasekhar Rao said that through Mission Bhagiratha 6,158 villages and 12 municipalities of the state would be provided with drinking water by December and would complete all the irrigation projects in the next three years. He vowed that Mission Bhagiratha would be accomplished by end of 2018.

He justified expenditure of Rs 83,000 crore on Pranahita-Chevella project stating that it would be a great boon to the state.

The Chief Minister was replying to the debate on thanks giving motion to the address of the Governor to the Assembly, on Sunday.

He said that Mission Kakatiya would be provided with enough funds. He said that the opposition was taught a fitting lesson in the recent elections for their irresponsible criticism.

Bringing charges to close which were made against recent agreement with Maharashtra government, on the usage of Godavari water, he said that at nowhere government entered into agreement with Maharashtra on keeping the height of Tammidihette dam (Pranahitha project) at 148 meters.

The Chief Minister told the House that a meeting with the Maharashtra’s officials, ministers and the Chief Minister would be held on 19 of this month to iron out details like height of the dam and others.
Taking exception to the comments that the Governor’s speech was like the manifesto of the ruling party, Chandrasekhara Rao made it clear that Governor should read out the speech endorsed by the state cabinet, lest it would be undemocratic.

Charging the Congress party with failing on delivering the promises, the Chief Minister said that his government has given 6 kg rice to each person, enhanced the number of rations cards, and was on the course in implementing the free education from LKG to PG.

Referring comments that Mission Bhagiratha could be completed with a cost of Rs 8,000 crores, he said that if so why the previous governments failed to complete it while the women were carrying water in cans from kilometers of distance.

He said that the Siddipeta Water Supply Scheme, implemented two decades ago, was functioning successfully even during the drought period and became the inspiration to Bhagiratha scheme. He said that Uttar Pradesh, Bihar and West Bengal have evinced keen interest on the project.

The Chief Minister took strong objection to the letter written by Congress MP Sukhendar Reddy to reject loan to MB project to HUDCO.

The Chief Minister said that demand for power has grown by 16 per cent over the past financial year, and refuted the allegations that the government was able to supply power uninterruptedly as the demand for it has fallen in agriculture sector.

Criticising the Congress for ill designed metro rail, he said that nowhere in the world it was not linked with international airport. He said that they have provided pensions to 35 lakh aged people including 4 lakh bidi workers.

He categorically stated that the Bangaru Talli scheme of the Congress government has been done away with and Kalyana Laxmi has been implemented. He said that Bangaru Talli was an electoral gimmick and no one was sure about when it would benefit the beneficiary.

Setting aside the criticism that 2BHK programme was unachievable he said that they would take corporate social responsibility help to complete the project. “We urged the big companies to construct the 2BHKs without seeking big margins,” he said. The Chief Minister said that this project would be constructed with the amount raised by loans.

Referring to loan waiver scheme to farmers, he said that they were expecting the Centre to raise the cap on the FRBM limit by 0.5 per cent and if get the farm loans would be waived at one go.
The Chief Minister said that the TSIPASS was a great success by attracting Rs 33,000 crores of investment and soon Google, Amazon and Cogniser would come to Hyderabad.

He said that the T-Hub being opened by Tata Group chairman Ratan Tata was a great achievement for the state. He said that the response to Pharma City was overwhelming and the demand for the land was to the tune of 6,160 acres.

Chandrasekhara Rao said that the growth in the IT sector was on the top in the entire country, aerospace industry was going to grow rapidly with Mahindra, Boeing and other companies showing interest to set up their units here.

RTC has been bailed from losses, distribution of three acres of land to Daliths was in progress and so far 2,503 families were given 6,298 acres.

Speaking on the demand to clear the arrears of fee reimbursement, he said that there were lot of bogus colleges, established just to mint money the help of fee reimbursement scheme.
He said that the standards of the pass outs of engineering colleges were quite poor and this was pointed out at NASCOM meet, much to his chagrin. He wondered why we were manufacturing 40,000 teachers, and 60,000 engineers every year though there was no space to absorb them in the job market.

The Chief Minister rejected the averment of the opposition that TRS promised a government job to each family. He wondered how the government could provide one government job to 1.03 crore families. He informed that orders were given to fill 18,000 jobs in the government departments, recruitment has been done for 4,000, and 10,000 teacher posts would be filled soon.

On appointing vice chancellors to universities the Chief Minister said that the anarchy in this sector has spoiled the universities. He said that they were mulling on appointing eminent persons as chancellors.
On Rohit Vemula case, he said that it was the result of the unruly situation prevailing in universities. He wondered how ‘Kiss festivals’ would be held.

He said that all the genuine beneficiaries of Indiramma Housing programme would be paid the bills.

Finding fault with the opposition for questioning the government on going for huge borrowings, he said that they would not burden the people as the state budget would reach to Rs 2 lakh crores by 2020. He said that the debit burden of USA was $ 19.3 trillion and China’s was $ 3.8 trillion. On 12 per cent reservations to STs, muslims he said that the government would send a resolution to the Parliament seeking raise on the limit of reservations as dene by Tamilnadu.

No agreement on height

Coming down heavily on the opposition, on their charges on agreement with Maharashtra, he said that agreement concluded only on establishing interstate water board to oversee the implementation of various projects on Godavari.

He said that the previous Congress government went on to dig canals without the approval of Maharashtra government on Tammidihette project. He said that nearly Rs 8,000 crores have gone into drain due to this.

The Chief Minister supplied the copies of letter written by the then MH Chief Minister Prithwiraj Chauhan to his combined AP counterpart Kiran Kumar Reddy raising objections on Pranahitha Chevella project, to the members of the House. He said that with 400 barrages on Godavari, even a single drop of water would reach SRSP, Singur and Nizam Sagar. “For the first time in 30 years, Singur has gone dry. Now the only source of water in Godavari is water from Indravathi and Pranahitha. We have 90 TMC of assured water 90 kms down Tammidihette,” he told the House.

He alleged that the erstwhile AP government deliberately scuttled the irrigation projects of Telangana by making them either by making them interstate projects or bringing them into ecological projects.
He said that the canal of 42 kms from Tammidihette was designed through Singareni Collieries, and through forest areas so that it never gets clearances from the Centre. He alleged that the Kinnerasani project was handed over to tiger reserve and with this anyone could not enter its area within 10 kms radius.

Chandrasekhara Rao said that the Pulichintala project was constructed at gun point by former Chief Minister YS Rajasekhara Reddy and Pothireddypadu was implemented forcibly.

He said that YSR government went ahead with Polavarm project though it was vehemently opposed by TRS. He said that the Congress Telangana leaders were silent who were the part of YSR cabinet, then. He said that several Telangana project were diverted to ensure water reaching Dhavaleswara project.

Justifying the cost of Pranahitha project, he said that it would irrigate the state beyond 16 lakh acres as designed earlier. The Chief Minister said the escalation of the cost of the project to Rs 83,000 crores from Rs 38,000 crores would benefit all and said that the redesigned project would be a boon to the entire state.

He ridiculed the allegations that Palamuru Lift was planned wrongly on Srisailam foreshore instead of at Jurala. He made it clear that Srisailam would have 50 ft of water even at dead storage level.
Chandrasekhara Rao said that he would give the details of various irrigation projects in the Assembly at a special meet.