CM KCR warns against India being turned into Taliban-ruled Afghanistan
We need a progressive and unbiased government at the Centre for the nation to develop and consecutively, the States to grow.
Mahabubabad/Kothagudem: In a heavily loaded speech castigating the Bharatiya Janata Party severely for invoking communal and caste-based hatred to divide the people of the country for political gains, Chief Minister K Chandrashekhar Rao warned that such State-sponsored hatred would only lead to destruction of the nation, turning India into a Taliban-ruled Afghanistan.
The Chief Minister emphasised the need for a progressive and unbiased government at the Centre for the nation to develop and consequently, for the States to grow. He stated that people need peace and harmony where well-being of all citizens could be assured.
“Otherwise, we will lose investments and industries denying employment to our youth. Telangana will show the path of development to the nation,” he declared while addressing meetings organised during the inauguration of the Integrated District Collectorate Complexes at Mahabubabad and Kothagudem on Thursday.
Chandrashekhar Rao slammed the BJP government at the Centre for its divisive politics which was the root cause for water wars between several States. Pointing out that despite availability of nearly 70,000 TMC river water, he said the country was able to utilise only 20,000 TMC water for irrigation and people were being denied safe drinking water even 75 years after independence. Telangana was the only State to supply uninterrupted power and water even as other States were in conflict with each other over water and electricity. Many cities including Delhi were getting water only once in 10 days.
He pointed out that due to the Centre’s inefficiency and bad policies, the country was able to utilise only 2.1 lakh MW of the total installed capacity of 4.1 lakh MW power plants available. Power plants with a capacity of nearly 39,000 MW were shut down in Chhattisgarh and Odisha due to the Centre’s incompetence.
“Even after 20 years, the Krishna River water sharing disputes between the riparian States are pending due to inefficiency of the union government. But Telangana went ahead as it was determined to complete these irrigation projects,” he said, calling upon the people to gear up for a fight in this regard.
The Chief Minister also criticised the Centre for not performing on par with Telangana and stated that due to the Centre’s inefficiency and incompetence, Telangana had lost nearly Rs.3.5 lakh crore of GSDP as per estimations of noted economists.
“When we came into power, the GSDP was Rs.5 lakh crore. Now, it is Rs.11.5 lakh crore. If the union government had performed as well as Telangana, our GSDP would have been Rs.14.5 lakh crore,” he said.
The Chief Minister said the per capita income of Telangana increased from Rs.87,000 in 2014 to Rs.2.78 lakh in 2022. Telangana had also recorded the highest per capita consumption of power in the country. However, despite availability of abundant resources, successive governments at the Centre failed to ensure optimum utilisation. On the other hand, the Telangana government was implementing numerous welfare and development programmes without discrimination of religion, caste and creed.
He reminded that the KCR Kits scheme was not only ensuring good health for new mothers and infants, but also compensating for the loss of income to some extent to mothers who were unable to attend work during pregnancy.
Chandrashekhar Rao urged the people of Telangana as well as the nation to discuss the situation prevailing in the country as the nation’s growth would propel development of States. Taking yet another dig at the BJP, he said BJP leaders were capable only of rhetoric speeches, but not providing water for irrigation and drinking, power and employment.
“Unless people question political parties on their electoral promises in the democratic system, the country will continue to confine itself to political rhetoric and justice will be denied to the needy,” he added.
He said the BRS party would hold a massive public meeting in Khammam on January 18 with several noted leaders from across the country, and urged people to join forces in the attempt to protect the nation from divisive forces. He also sought their support in development of the country on the lines of Telangana.
