Leader of the Opposition in the Telangana Council Mohammed Ali Shabbir demanded that the CM declare his assets and disclose his sources of income.
Leader of the Opposition in the Telangana Legislative Council Mohammed Ali Shabbir on Tuesday demanded that Chief Minister K Chandrashekar Rao declare his assets and also disclose his sources of income.
Addressing a press conference along with MLC Ponguleti Sudhakar Reddy at the Congress Legislature Party office, Shabbir Ali said he was a bit surprised after hearing KCR's speech in the valedictory function of the orientation program for TRS workers on Monday wherein the TRS chief spoke about morality, ethics, commitment, corruption and good governance.
"KCR appeared like a changed man when he spoke about morals, ethics and corruption. However, within 40 minutes of the conclusion of the event, KCR addressed a public meeting in Ibrahimpatnam which was organised by local MLA Manchireddy Kishan Reddy, who defected to the TRS from the TDP. Is it not unethical to promote defections in other parties?" he asked.
Stating that so far KCR had lured 12 MLAs and 13 MLCs to his party's fold, Shabbir Ali blamed KCR of practising the most unethical politics ever.
"If KCR really believes in ethics and morals, then he should ask all the 12 MLAs to resign and seek a fresh mandate," he demanded.
Similarly, he said that the Chief Minister should disclose all the assets he had accumulated since 2001 after floating the TRS.
"In his affidavit filed before the Election Commission, KCR disclosed assets of Rs 85.98 lakhs while contesting from the Karimnagar Lok Sabha seat in the 2004 elections. His assets grew to Rs 15.15 crores by the 2014 elections. KCR should explain how his assets and properties increased almost 17 times in just one decade. Interestingly, KCR was not in power and was running an agitation during this period," he said.
Further, Shabbir Ali said that KCR had constructed Telangana Bhavan and his family got stakes in Namasthe Telangana and the T-News channel. All this happened during the agitation period, which led people to suspect that the KCR family resorted to extortion. Therefore, he said that the TRS chief should explain the sources of funding for all these projects and also disclose the list of all donors and contributors.
He said such a disclosure would only improve KCR's image among the people.
Reacting to KCR's contention on commitment, Shabbir Ali said that the Chief Minister never honoured his words. Before the elections he had told the people that his son and daughter were well settled in the US and that he too was not aspiring for any post. He had also promised to make a Dalit the CM, and ensure that he served as a watchdog of the Telangana state. However, almost all family members of KCR were now holding top positions, and he had gone back on all his commitments, Shabbir Ali stated.
With regard to good governance, Shabbir Ali said that in a span of 11 months, the TRS government faced at least 12 negative judgments from the High Court. Just recently the High Court had pulled up the state government for mishandling affairs related to farmers' suicides, FAST and appointment of Parliamentary Secretaries among others.
He also ridiculed KCR's claim that he (KCR) had read nearly 80,000 books. He said that the Chief Minister should have used simple mathematics before making such a false claim. Even if KCR had started reading books from the age of 11 years, he would have needed to read for 14 hours every day to finish 80,000 books at an average of four hours per book. If KCR's claim on reading 80,000 books was true, then he deserved an entry into the Guinness Book of World Records, Shabbir Ali said. (INN)