Congress Flays Collectors For Touching KCR's Feet

Senior Congress leader and former minister Mohammad Ali Shabbir today strongly condemned the district Collectors of Kamareddy and Siddipet for touching the feet of Telangana Chief Minister K Chandrashekar Rao during his visit to the districts for the inauguration of government buildings.

"It is a matter of great shame that Kamareddy Collector A Sharat and Siddipet Collector P Venkatrama Reddy touched the feet of CM KCR in full public view. They are not only IAS officers but also district magistrates. They have sent the wrong message to the public and have set a wrong precedent by bowing down before the CM. The Congress will lodge a formal complaint against this behaviour and seek action against the same. We will also refer the matter to Governor Tamilisai Soundararajan and to President Ram Nath Kovind as we feel that the actions of the Collectors have insulted the Constitution," he thundered while addressing a press conference at Kamareddy.

Shabbir Ali alleged, "The Collectors have even defended their actions by claiming that they touched KCR's feet as a mark of their respect for him. This is a ridiculous justification. It seems that the Collectors have forgotten that as per the Constitution, a Collector is the chief officer of revenue administration, responsible for the collection of land revenue, and also the highest revenue judicial authority in the district. In their role as district magistrates, Collector are also the ones responsible for maintaining law and order and heading the police and prosecuting agencies. By touching the CM's feet, who is also the president of the ruling party of the state, the TRS, both the Collectors have insulted the Indian Constitution and behaved in a manner unbecoming of public officials."

"KCR had himself turned the inauguration of district complexes in Siddipet and Kamareddy into a TRS affair. He did not meet the public - the farmers, students, traders or any other persons. He only made time to see a few TRS leaders. All the functionaries of the Opposition were either arrested or placed under house arrest. In Kamareddy, even media personnel were locked in a room and were asked to take the news feed provided by the officials. Moreover, elected representatives like Councillors or Zilla Parishad members belonging to Opposition parties were not permitted to attend the events. This all just proves how KCR is smothering democracy. I demand that he clarify whether he is the CM for the entire population of Telangana or just for the members of the TRS," he fumed.

Calling the rule of the TRS a "form of dictatorship", the Congressman then claimed that though many sections of society were planning to submit memorandums to the CM seeking redressal for various grievances, they were unable to do as the local police and administration had put them under preventive custody before the CM's arrival.

Besides this, he flayed the KCR regime for "neglecting" the people of Kamaredddy, and alleged, "In the run-up to the 2018 elections, KCR had promised that a medical college would be built in Kamareddy. However, this promise has remained unfulfilled even today. He has also neglected Kamareddy by not sanctioning Rs 200 crore for the development of water supply systems in the region and by moving an important veterinary college to Nizamabad. Even the promised 2BHK houses have not been provided to journalists. The TRS regime has let the people of Kamareddy down in many ways."

The leader alleged that some IAS officers who were trying to "please" the CM had been involved in corruption, land grabbing and other activities. But he asserted that the Congress would "expose the failures" of the TRS government, especially the regime's "deliberate neglect" of the Kamareddy region.