Andhra Pradesh

People wait for hours to welcome KCR

Weary wait: TRS president K. Chandrashekhar Rao addressing a meeting at Adilabad on Friday.

ADILABAD: The day-long wait notwithstanding, enthusiastic people gave a rousing reception to TRS chief K. Chandrashekhar Rao who was behind schedule by seven hours for the meeting here on Friday.

As expected over 2,000 persons who included politicians, retired employees and others joined the Telangana protagonist party in the presence of the TRS president. He welcomed them all, especially Ch. Suhasini Reddy, Telugu Desam Party’s (TDP) Adilabad coordination committee secretary and a former ZP chairperson and her followers.

Mr. Chandrashekhar Rao complimented all those who came to his party from the TDP for having been decisive about their stand on separate Telangana State. “You will be treated as heroes by people in Telangana. Chandrababu Naidu’s stand that he would take a right decision on Telangana issue at the right time is nothing but dithering. It is neither here nor there. Dhobi ka kutta na ghar ka na ghat ka”, he remarked.

Dwelling on the naxal issue in Telangana at length, the TRS chief said Chief Minister Y.S. Rajasekhara Reddy raised the spectre of naxalism only to hinder the formation of a new State. “We welcome naxalites for talks. We will allocate land to all landless poor to address the core issue”, he declared.

Mr. Chandrasekhar Rao asked the Congress MLAs from Telangana to resign for the cause. “Congress vallu rajinama cheste tellavarostadi Telangana”, he quipped. Later, the TRS president interacted with leaders of different associations and unions of Government employees and others. Adilabad MP T. Madhusudan Reddy, Khanapur MLA A. Govind Naik, TRS district president Bharat Waghmare and others attended.

Nizamabad Staff Reporter adds: Mr. Rao has observed that the All India Congress Committee president Sonia Gandhi insulted people of Telangana by denying audience to senior Congress leaders from the region.

“It indicated that the Congress leadership has no time even to listen to the problems of Telangana. Some Congress “sannasulu” (inefficient persons) from the region were silent when Chief Minister Y.S. Rajasekhara Reddy likened Telangana to Kashmir and described the entire region as a hotbed for naxalites and ISI agents. However, they have been finding fault with me when I criticised Rayalaseema leaders in Telangana slang”, he said at a press conference here on Friday.

“We have all seen what happened to the Telugu Desam leaders who supported Chandrababu Naidu who acted against Telangana. Congress leaders like Chinna Reddy and Jeevan Reddy are also going to face the same fate”, he said and wanted to know as to why the Congress Government got TRS legislators suspended when they insisted on resolution on Telangana in Assembly.

It was G. Chinna Reddy, the present Minister who introduced a resolution on separate Telangana in his capacity as CLP secretary when Dr. Rajasekhara Reddy was the Opposition leader in the Assembly. “Is it not double standard of Congress party”, he said. What happened to promises made by Dr. Rajasekhara Reddy to Telangana people during his padayatra before 2004 elections, questioned Mr. Rao.

Mr. Rao demanded that the Chief Minister Y.S. Rajasekhara Reddy and the Minister for School Education Damodar Rajanarsimha be arrested for their alleged violation of Minimum Wages Act by not offering even Rs.100 per day for Vidya Volunteers.. Talkinh to mediapersons here, he said the duo deserved punishment as denying minimum wages under the Act amounts to an offence. He questioned as to how the Chief Minister allowed the contract system in Government jobs when he criticised it while he was the Opposition leader during the Telugu Desam rule.

The Telangana ideologue Prof K. Jayasankar, party MLA G. Ganga Reddy and MLC R. Satyanarayana were present.

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