AICC national spokesperson Dasoju Sravan today launched a scathing attack on Telangana IT and Industries Minister K T Rama Rao, for the latter's "misleading statements" regarding job recruitment in Telangana under the TRS regime.
After KTR claimed that the TRS had provided
government jobs to about 1.32 lakh people in the state over the last six years, and ridiculed the preceding Congress regime of undivided Andhra Pradesh for generating just 24,000 jobs between 2004 and 2014, Sravan retorted by saying that the TRS leader had made "misleading" statements on the matter.
Addressing the media at the Gandhi Bhavan, the senior Congress leader then challenged Rao to an open debate where the two could discuss the issue of employment generation in both the private and public sectors in detail, and even fixed the venue, time and date for the same.
"We are not idiots who will readily believe your shameless, useless and falsified statements. You are only making these false claims to gain electoral advantages in the upcoming graduates' constituencies' elections. However, we will not tolerate this. You must come, along with your team, to the Telangana Martyrs' Memorial on Friday (February 26) at 12 noon, with the facts to substantiate your claims. You must provide the real recruitment numbers and the number of current vacancies in the government sector as well," he said to KTR.
"Your own Biswal Commission report contradicts your claims. Your father, Chief Minister KCR, said that there will no longer be any contract positions in Telangana's educational institutes. Despite this, you are neither appointing new employees, nor filling up existing vacancies. And, you are not even protecting the rights of private employees - when educational groups, including the Narayana, Chaitanya and Gayathri groups, suddenly removed about 10,000 to 15,000 qualified and experienced lecturers, you did nothing. You have betrayed the youth and the employees in the state," he added.
According to Sravan, there are about 40 lakh unemployed youth in Telangana and more than 3 lakh jobs currently vacant in the various government departments of the state. Citing the aforementioned figures, he claimed that the government had done nothing since 2014 to support the people, including the unemployed youth, the graduates and the government employees. He pointed out that the employees were eagerly awaiting the release of a new PRC with an enhanced pay hike rate, and that the government had done nothing to address the matter.
The senior Congress leader also faulted KTR and his colleagues for "failing" to strengthen the Information Technology and Investment Region (ITIR) project, initiated by the previous UPA-led Centre in 2008.
"The ITIR project is failing because of you. When it requires an investment of only Rs 13,000 crore and 50,000 acres of land, which was already demarcated by the preceding Congress government of Andhra Pradesh, why does your father seem so unwilling to support the project? Can he not spend just Rs 13,000 crore for the benefit of 50 lakh sons of our soil? Or are you willing to betray the state's IT workers as well?" he asked.
The Congress spokesperson then criticised the TRS leader for "deliberately ignoring" the aspirations of those who had fought for the creation of the state, and for "insulting the sacrifices of over 1,500 martyrs" of the Telangana movement. He warned the TRS and its leaders that the graduates would teach them a lesson in the upcoming MLC elections as the government had been "ignoring" the demands of "lakhs of unemployed graduates".
Addressing KTR, he said, "Your father rushed to make your sister Kavitha an MLC. When your sister Kavitha cannot survive without a job, how do you think these youngsters can live without livelihoods? After all, it is the fundamental responsibility of any government to provide employment to its citizens. Since you have failed to do so, however, the unemployed graduates will surely teach you a lesson in the upcoming MLC elections."
As the race for the MLC seats in the state's two graduates' constituencies is heating up, so is the exchange of allegations between the political parties vying for the seats. The polling for the posts will be held on March 14.