The priority was clearly reflected in the address by Governor E S L Narasimhan to the joint session of the Telangana Assembly and Council, Shabbir Ali said.
The Leader of Opposition in the Telangana Legislative Council Mohammed Ali Shabbir alleged that Chief Minister K Chandrashekar Rao was more focused on encouraging defections in Opposition parties than on developing the State.
Speaking on the Motion Of Thanks on the Governor's address in the Legislative Council on Saturday, Shabbir Ali said that instead of achieving the goal of "Bangaru Telangana", the Chief Minister was spending more time on offering TRS kanduvas to the legislators of Opposition parties.
His priority for politics over development was clearly reflected in the address by Governor E S L Narasimhan to the joint session of the Telangana Assembly and Council on March 10.
He said that the Governor's address sounded neither like a progress report of the TRS government nor like a vision document.
"It was a completely directionless speech by the Governor," he said amid strong protests by the members of the treasury benches.
Shabbir Ali also slammed the Governor for skipping the issue of the Telangana martyrs in his speech. This triggered protests by the TRS members who alleged that the Leader of Opposition was raising a subject which was irrelevant to Governor's address. Defending his stand, Shabbir Ali said that Telangana became a reality due to the supreme sacrifices made by the martyrs, and the TRS government had comfortably neglected their families.
"Most of the families were not even given the promised Rs. 10 lakh compensation. The Collectors have wrongly claimed that they could not find the addresses of the martyrs' families. The Chief Minister himself had admitted that nearly 2,000 people had laid down their lives for the statehood cause, but the State government has so far identified only about 480 martyrs. Is this the way we should treat our martyrs?" he asked.
Referring to a recent suicide committed by one Swamy Yadav in Jangaon, he said that the youngster was popularly called "Udyamam Swamy" for his active role in the Telangana movement. But he ended his life as he was completely neglected by the government.
He also slammed the State government for not lifting the cases registered during the Telangana movement.
Shabbir Ali said that the agreement with Maharashtra over the construction of barrages over the Godavari was neither historic nor exemplary. He said that similar pacts had been signed in 1975, 1980 and 2012.
He said that the government had raised the cost of the project from Rs. 38,000 crores to Rs. 83,000 crores this time while the ayacut remained at 16 lakh acres. At this rate, he said that the project would cost nearly Rs. 5 lakhs per acre while Rs. 73,000 per acre would be required for the maintenance. As per the Central Water Commission guidelines, the income per acre should be at least three times the maintenance cost, and for drought-hit and Agency areas, at least double the maintenance cost. However, in this case, the annual income per acre would be about Rs. 35,000. In view of huge construction and maintenance costs, the project would not be viable, and the CWC would not recommend it for National Project status, he said.
He said that except for decreasing the height of the barrage from 152 metres to 148 metres, the clauses in the agreements signed between Telangana and Maharashtra in 2012 and in this year were the same.
Shabbir Ali also pulled up State government for shutting down the website on Government GOs in violation of the Right To Information Act. At this juncture, Information Technology Minister K Tarakarama Rao intervened and claimed that RTI was in implementation in the State, but the website was shut down due to some "professional blackmailers". Countering this claim, Shabbir Ali said that the government should not suppress people's Right To Information just due to the fear of a few individuals.
The Congress leader also demanded that the State government waive off the total dues of the crop loan waiver scheme. He accused the government of being a mute spectator to the suicides being committed by farmers. He also asked the government to revive the NRI cell to train youth in various skills. He said that most of the Gulf aspirants were children of poor farmers.
Shabbir Ali also accused the State government of burdening the people by increasing the power tariff. While an additional burden of Rs. 2,000 crores would be imposed through the tariff hike, another Rs. 3,000 crores were proposed to be collected through FSA. He said that the government had failed to add a single MW of power since its formation, and all the projects being commissioned now were actually initiated during the Congress regime.
Speaking about the free 2BHK housing, Shabbir Ali said that the State government had not constructed even 1,000 houses but had been making false claims of sanctioning 60,000 units. He said that the government would need Rs. 15,700 crores this year to fulfill the promise of constructing 1 lakh houses each in both Hyderabad and the rural areas.
Likewise, he said that the health sector in the State was in extremely bad shape, and that the Governor's address failed to make a mention of the real status. The existing hospitals were struggling for want of doctors, medicines, equipment and other facilities, and the promise of having super-speciality hospitals in all districts also remained unfulfilled.
Raising the issue of the gang-rape of a dalit girl in the Karimnagar district, Shabbir Ali said that the TRS government did not take timely action in the case. Similarly, he said that the response of the TRS government in the suicide case of the dalit scholar of HCU Rohith Vemula was highly objectionable. He said that while several national leaders including Rahul Gandhi visited the university, KCR decided against travelling just 8 km to visit the university. He asked why the TRS government was so allergic to dalits.
He strongly objected to the non-mention of 12% reservation for Muslims and STs in the Governor's address. He said that the TRS government was also not serious on defending the 4% reservation for Muslims in the Supreme Court. He said that when the matter had come up for hearing before the Constitutional Bench in the Supreme Court on February 29, no representative of the Telangana government was present in the court. He said that he had written a letter to the Chief Minister on this issue.
Describing the Governor's address as direction-less, Shabbir Ali said that the Congress was opposing it.