KCR Outbursts Cheap, Anti-Democratic: Kodandaram

Reacting to Telangana Chief Minister K Chandrashekar Rao's criticism of him, Telangana JAC chairman M Kodandaram stated that KCR's language and the way he spoke were provocative and against democratic values.

Speaking to the media at the TJAC office on Saturday evening, Kodandaram said that KCR was criticizing him personally because the latter was not in a position to answer the problems being faced by the people. He said that he was attributing the remarks against him by KCR to the latter's maturity.

He said that contrary to KCR's assertions that Telangana happened because of him (KCR), the formation of Telangana was not just because of any single person. The state was created because of the united efforts of the entire Telangana population.

He added that Telangana was not achieved for the sake of power for a few people, and that the aspirations of the movement needed to be fulfilled. The KCR government was however behaving similar to the previous united Andhra Pradesh governments, he alleged, and unfurled a litany of allegations. He said that KCR continuously resorted to instigating party defections and purchasing MLAs to keep all the power in his hands, and was taking decisions unilaterally without speaking to his own ministers and officials. There was also no social balance in KCR's cabinet, and the CM did not empower his own ministers. The ministers and MLAs were mere figureheads, meaning that there was no peoples' participation in the government. And the Chief Minister didn't go to the Secretariat and the people could not go to Pragathi Bhavan, he said.

He also alleged that land grabbing and illegal sand transport were going on in the state indiscriminately, and claimed that KCR had utterly failed in controlling corruption and irregularities. And with each passing day the government was also distancing the people from education and health, he said. The state government was not releasing funds for education and health, and patients were facing hardships in government hospitals due to non-availability of required facilities, he claimed.

All of this necessitated the JAC continuing to wage the same struggle as it did for the creation of Telangana, he said.