E Dayakar Rao Blasts BJP For "Unfulfilled" Promises

Telangana Panchayat Raj and Rural Development Minister Errabelli Dayakar Rao today came down heavily on the BJP-led Centre, and accused the latter of having "cheated" the people of the nation by not fulfilling many of its election-time promises.

He said that while the BJP had promised to create two crore jobs annually in its manifesto, it had "failed" to do so after coming to power, and added that the unfulfilled promise was evidence of the fact that it was cheating the country.

"Instead of generating employment, the BJP-led Centre is now taking away existing jobs by privatising the PSUs of the country. It is cheating the youth of India. The SC, ST, BC and minorities communities will be the worst hit by this privatising spree since the corporates are not likely to retain the reservations that exist in the PSUs. The affected communities should unite and fight against such moves," Rao added.

The minister also assailed the government for "forgetting" about another promise it had made to the people, that of bringing down fuel prices within 100 days of coming to power.

"Although the BJP had promised that it would bring down fuel prices within 100 days of coming to power, it has not done so. What it has done successfully is burden the people with the skyrocketing fuel prices. Prices of other basic amenities are also surging. How does the Centre expect the people, whose financial strength was ravaged by the Covid-19 pandemic, to contend with these price hikes?" he asked.

"And what about the promise the BJP made in its manifesto for the 2019 Lok Sabha election of retrieving Indian black money stowed away in foreign bank accounts? Has it distributed the recovered amount among the citizens as it had claimed it would? Where are the Rs 15 lakh that were to be deposited into the bank accounts of every citizen? The BJP should stop making promises that it cannot keep," the TRS leader thundered.

He also expressed his displeasure at the union government for its "prejudiced" attitude towards Telangana, and said, "The Centre has sanctioned 157 medical colleges across the country. However, not even one of these are in Telangana. This is just one of the many examples of the Centre's step-motherly attitude towards our state. Why does it then expect the people of the state to vote for it and support it?"

Rao then went on to highlight how the TRS-led state government, "unlike the BJP", had stood by its people and had "fulfilled 80% of all the election-time promises". He assured the people the remaining promises would also be fulfilled within the next three years.

"Where the BJP is taking away jobs from the youth by privatising PSUs, our government has provided employment to 1.3 lakh people. The notification regarding the filling of 50,000 government jobs has also already been issued. We stand for true progress and development, and have achieved much in several sectors under the able guidance of Chief Minister K Chandrashekar Rao and IT and Industries Minister K T Rama Rao," the leader claimed.

Saying this, he appealed to the graduates of the Nalgonda-Warangal-Khammam graduates' constituency to support the TRS in the upcoming MLC elections to see continued development in the state, and asked the latter to vote for sitting MLC Palla Rajeshwar Reddy who was contesting to retain his seat.

The bitter exchanges between the TRS and its rivals in their campaigns for the upcoming elections have most often been centred around the issue of jobs and employment. It looks like the elections will be fought on this particular issue, this time around.