Grama Jyothi Is Old Wine In New Bottle: Congress

Leader of the Opposition in the Telangana Council Mohammed Ali Shabbir described the Grama Jyothi scheme to be launched by TRS government on August 17 as "old wine in a new bottle".

Addressing the media at the Congress Legislature Party office on Thursday, Shabbir Ali reminded them that on July 13, 2014, Chief Minister K Chandrashekar Rao had launched the scheme Mana Vuru, Mana Pranalika, and asked KCR to explain the difference between the two schemes.

He also said that the state government had promised to spend Rs 14,658 crores on Mana Vuru, Mana Pranalika, and had even given the break-up of the proposed expenditure, which included works like C C roads (Rs. 6,578.26 crores), drainage (Rs. 2,846.29 crores), overhead tanks (Rs. 874.16 crores), irrigation (Rs. 1,476.31 crores), bridges (Rs. 797.92 crores) and pipelines (Rs. 638.52 crores).

He said that not even 20% of those allocated funds had been spent, and that the entire scheme turned out to be a damp squib despite crores of rupees being spent on its publicity.

Shabbir Ali said that KCR should give an explanation on the status of Mana Vuru, Mana Pranalika before going ahead with Grama Jyothi. He said that the new scheme had been announced only to cover up the failures of the old one. He alleged that KCR kept reneging on his words.

The Congress leader also asked KCR to explain how he proposed to mobilise Rs 1.70 lakh crores to fund some of the flagship schemes that his government proposed to implement.

These included Rs. 50,000 crores for SC welfare, Rs. 25,000 crores for BC welfare, Rs. 5,000 crores for minorities welfare, Rs. 20,000 crores for Mission Kakatiya, Rs. 35,000 crores for Water Grid and Rs. 25,000 crores for Grama Jyothi.

KCR had already turned Telangana from a revenue surplus state to a "bankrupt" state, Shabbir Ali alleged, and said that at least now he should adopt a realistic and transparent approach.