The Hindu : TRS ready for debate with TDP on Telangana: KCR

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Wednesday, Apr 30, 2003

Southern States

Southern States - Andhra Pradesh

TRS ready for debate with TDP on Telangana: KCR

By Our Special Correspondent

HYDERABAD April 29. Accepting the ruling TDP's challenge for a debate on the development of Telangana region during the TDP rule, the Telangana Rashtra Samiti has said that it is prepared to debate the issue at a venue decided by the ruling party provided the TDP president and the Chief Minister, N. Chandrababu Naidu, is willing to participate in it.

``Perturbed over the huge public response to the Jaitra Yatra meeting of the TRS, the TDP leaders appear to have lost their balance or else they would not have made such comments. What is the level of the Ministers who are seeking an open debate both within the party and in the Government. The TRS is prepared for a debate only if the Chief Minister comes forward to participate in it,'' the TRS president, K. Chandrasekhar Rao said.

Addressing a press conference on Tuesday, the TRS president launched a trenchant attack on the Ministers, K. Srihari and N. Janardhan Reddy, for making self-contradictory statements - attributing Telangana's backwardness to historical reasons on the one hand and at the same time claiming that six Telangana districts were among the top 10 GDP earning districts in the State. Mr. Rao was particularly bitter on the Minister for Major Irrigation, K. Srihari. "What will be the sanctity of the debate with the Minister who, according to none other than the Chief Minister, lacks understanding on major issues,'' he asked.

Accusing the two Ministers for continuing with the TDP only for the sake of power, he advised them not to become `political agents' of the Chief Minister and indulge in cheap politics at his behest. Mr Srihari and Mr Janardhan Reddy, both from Telangana region, should come out of the TDP and join the movement for a separate Telangana if they are really committed to the development of the backward region.

Ridiculing the ruling party's claims of development of the Telangana region, he said that the region no doubt had achieved the dubious distinction of large-scale suicide by farmers and weavers, migration of its people and the closure of industrial units.

He also took strong objection to the claim that a special leave petition filed in the High Court had become a hurdle in the implementation of the recommendations made by the House Committee on GO 610 stating that the special leave petition is only a pretext with which the ruling party is trying to postpone the implementation of the recommendations. "The TRS would take up an intensive agitation to pressure the Government to implement the recommendations and undo the injustice done to Telangana in employment,'' he said.

Referring to Mr Naidu's decision to send the Major Irrigation Minister to Delhi for obtaining clearance to the Devadula project, he said that the Chief Minister's directives were only aimed at cheating the people of Telangana for the sake of votes as it is a well-known fact that the projects would not come up without assured allocation of water to them.

Asked about the reported comment of some Congress leaders over a possible alliance with the TRS in the next elections since both the parties were working for the same cause, he said that the Congress could take up the Telangana issue only if the CWC and AICC pass a resolution for a separate State, which was a distant possibility.

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