KTR Calls Governor Assembly Speech Congress Propaganda

BRS working president K T Rama Rao today launched a scathing attack on Governor Jishnu Dev Varma's Budget speech in the State Assembly, labelling it a "Congress workers' press meet" rather than a dignified address befitting the Governor's office.

He accused the ruling Congress government, led by Chief Minister Revanth Reddy, of scripting the address with "blatant lies, half-truths and misleading statements to mask 15 months of miserable and utterly failed governance".

KTR expressed dismay that instead of outlining new policies or addressing the status of the Congress' 420 election promises and six guarantees, the Governor's address appeared to "serve as a mouthpiece for party propaganda".

"We expected the speech to be a confession of their disastrous rule, but it felt like a press meet at Gandhi Bhavan," he said.

Highlighting what he called an "unprecedented and disgraceful incident", KTR pointed to a recent protest by contractors outside Deputy CM Bhatti Vikramarka's chamber in the Telangana Secretariat. He alleged that the contractors were demanding clearance of pending bills, claiming they were being coerced into paying a 20% commission.

"This has never happened in any State secretariat in India," he said, and accused the Congress government of prioritising "commissions and corruption" over governance.

KTR also painted a grim picture of the State's agrarian crisis, blaming it on the Congress government's failures.

He claimed that crops were drying up due to a worsening irrigation crisis, with the Medigadda barrage - part of the Kaleshwaram Lift Irrigation Project - left unrepaired for 15 months due to Revanth Reddy's "blind hatred" for former Chief Minister K Chandarshekar Rao.

"Thousands of acres of crops have been destroyed, and farmers are now using their fields for cattle grazing," he said, and asked why the Governor's speech ignored such pressing issues.

He also challenged the government's claims of farm loan waivers, accusing the Governor of falsely claiming that loan waivers were complete and that "lakhs of farmers are happy", calling those "fabricated lies". He said that the waivers had not exceeded 25-30% anywhere in the State.

"Show me one village where 100% loan waivers have been implemented, and BRS leaders will resign," KTR declared.

He also dismissed the government's claims that the Rythu Bandhu scheme and a Rs 12,000 annual benefit for farm labourers were being implemented, and labelled the claims as distortions.

"The government's claim of securing Rs 1.79 lakh crore in investments at the World Economic Forum in Davos is also an absolute lie," he said. He claimed that the Rs 40,000 crore in investments announced last year had yet to materialize, and challenged the Chief Minister to release a white paper on the actual investments received.

He also alleged that due to Congress' "incompetence", major projects secured during the BRS tenure - including Kanes (Rs 3,800 crore), Corning (Rs 1,000 crore) and Premier Energy (Rs 1,700 crore) - had shifted to Gujarat, Tamil Nadu and Andhra Pradesh.

KTR also accused the Congress government of failing students by not providing overseas scholarships and neglecting the Gurukul schools, where he claimed that students were "starving" and that 83 had died. "Not a single word of condolence was mentioned in the Governor's speech," he lamented.

He also criticised the government for "betraying the backward classes, failing to fulfill promises of a proper caste census, and suspending a Congress MLC who raised concerns about reservations".

Contrasting the financial management of the BRS and Congress regimes, KTR claimed that while KCR's government borrowed Rs 4.17 lakh crore over a decade - investing Rs 4.5 lakh crore in farmer welfare schemes including Rythu Bandhu (Rs 73,000 crore), loan waivers (Rs 28,000 crore), free electricity and irrigation projects - Revanth Reddy's administration had borrowed Rs 1.62 lakh crore in just one year without launching a single welfare scheme or infrastructure project.

"Telangana became number one in paddy production under KCR, yet Revanth Reddy shamelessly takes credit for the same," he also added.

KTR warned the State government that the people of Telangana were beginning to see through the government's "deception" of farmers and its plunge into debt and corruption, and that there would be a strong public backlash when the time came.