BJP leader and Dubbaka MLA M Raghunandan Rao today launched a scathing attack on Telangana IT and Industries Minister K T Rama Rao and Finance Minister T Harish Rao, and levelled against them a litany of allegations.
Speaking to the media, the MLA expressed his anger at KTR for
"feigning" concern for the workers of Andhra Pradesh's Visakhapatnam Steel Plant (VSP), who have been protesting the Centre's decision to disinvest from the plant, and said, "KTR is showing concern for the VSP's workers to win the confidence of the people of our state ahead of the upcoming MLC elections in two of the graduates' constituencies. Where was all this concern for the past seven years when KTR and his family were busy looting our state? What did he do for Telangana in his tenure? The TRS government has itself not done anything to support the people of the state, and is now pretending to support the workers in another state. It is laughable."
He even implied that KTR's "show of sympathy" would allow him to attract the private investors wanting to invest in the VSP to Telangana.
Calling the minister out for his "opportunistic" tendencies, Raghunandan Rao also assailed him for "habitually" bashing the BJP-led Centre in the run-up to any elections in the state, and asked him what right the TRS had to criticise the saffron party when it had itself failed to do anything for its people.
The BJP leader then targeted Finance Minister T Harish Rao, and accused him of being concerned only for his constituency, Siddipet, and reminded the latter that as a minister he was expected to serve the entire state.
He also lambasted the state government for its treatment of the oustees of the Mallannasagar irrigation works, part of the Kaleshwaram Lift Irrigation Project, and added, "I will fight for the Mallannasagar oustees, and will raise the matter in Parliament. The TRS government must resolve the compensation issue at the earliest," he said.
The leader has been quite vocal about the TRS regime's "failure" to compensate and rehabilitate the displaced persons. Recently, his
convoy was stopped by the police from entering the Etigadda Kistapur village where the works are underway.
He had made the decision to tour the village after the residents urged him to do so, alleging that the local authorities had been carrying out bund construction at night without having first distributed compensation to the dispossessed villagers. The detainment led the MLC to condemn the government's "unjust ways".