Congress Asks SEC To Remove TRS Ads From Metro Pillars

Telangana Pradesh Congress Committee (TPCC) President & MP N Uttam Kumar Reddy on Saturday demanded that the State Election Commission get the advertisements of the TRS from the pillars of the Hyderabad Metro Rail and other public places removed.

"The TRS has put up advertisements on all pillars of the metro rail to promote itself ahead of the GHMC elections. The metro rail is a public-private partnership, and funded by both the state and the union governments, and the TRS has no right to use it for party promotion. The TRS has also put up advertisements on other public properties like RTC bus shelters and public toilets," Reddy said in his complaint to State Election Commissioner C Parthasarthi.

He was accompanied by other senior Congress leaders including MLC Jeevan Reddy, Hyderabad Congress head M Anjan Kumar Yadav, TPCC General Secretary G Niranjan and others.

Speaking to the media later, Reddy also alleged that the BJP and the MIM were working together to polarise the voters on religious lines ahead of the GHMC elections.

The TPCC chief described the BJP and the MIM as two sides of the same coin. He said that both the parties wanted to create a divide in society on communal lines, and worked together to further themselves. Citing an example, he said that the MIM had helped the BJP come to power in the Bihar Assembly elections. "Everyone knows that if there was no MIM, the RJD-led Mahagatbandhan would have come to power in Bihar. Despite making claims that it protects the interests of the Muslims, the MIM is strengthening the BJP at all levels," he alleged. In contrast, the Congress always promoted communal harmony, peace and brotherhood, he said.

"Also, the BJP has done nothing for Hyderabad. In fact, the Information Technology Investment Region (ITIR) sanctioned for Hyderabad by the last Congress-led UPA government was cancelled by the present BJP government at the Centre. The ITIR project involved investment of Rs 2.5 lakh crore, and would have provided 50 lakh direct and indirect jobs. Let the BJP leaders, especially union Minister of State for Home Affairs G Kishan Reddy, explain why the ITIR did not take shape and why it got cancelled," he asked.

Reddy said that Hyderabad had witnessed development only during the Congress regimes. He said that the Congress had spent over Rs 1 lakh crore during 2004-2014 for the development of Hyderabad. The new international airport, the Outer Ring Road, the PVNR Expressway, the Metro Rail, drinking water from the Krishna and the Godavari rivers, and several other projects had been started and also completed during the previous Congress regimes, he claimed. He also said that it was the Congress governments which had turned Hyderabad into an IT and a pharma hub.

He alleged that the TRS had only indulged in corruption and focused on projects that could bring in huge kickbacks and commissions, and that no development took place in its TRS rule. It had failed to even maintain the infrastructure created by the previous Congress governments, he said, and asked the people to vote for the Congress to bring back development to Hyderabad.