KTR Vows To Quit If TRS Loses GHMC Elections

K T Rama Rao, Telangana IT & Panchayat Raj Minister and son of Chief Minister K Chandrashekar Rao, who is helming the TRS campaign for the February 2 GHMC elections, has declared that he would resign as minister if his Party lost the elections.

Speaking at a meet-the-press program on Monday, KTR exuded confidence that his Party would win more than 100 of the 150 seats in the elections, and bag the mayor post, too.

The MIM would be in the second position and the BJP in the third, he predicted. He said that the Congress would not secure even 10 seats.

KTR also criticized the previous governments for failing to develop the Telangana region and Hyderabad. He said that the TRS government had done a lot of development in the city in the past 18 months.

"Our Party's goal is to meet the basic needs of the citizens of Hyderabad like water, health, round-the-clock power supply even during summer, safety of women, education and good administration. Hyderabad is also the economic capital of Telangana, a global investment destination, and so we need to improve its infrastructure and have friendly industrial policies. We will also initiate measures to ease the vehicular traffic congestion through 54 signal-free junctions in Hyderabad and 11 skyways to be constructed at an estimated cost of Rs 11,000 crores," he said.

KTR also said that Chief Minister K Chandrashekar Rao was keen on developing Hyderabad into a safe, smart, clean, green and livable city, and transforming the metropolitan city into a global city completely changing its face. He promised completion of the Outer Ring Road within six months, curbing of encroachments in the Musi river and development of the river-bed land in a phased manner, a 42-km flyover along the river to provide new connectivity within the heart of the city and bring thousands of acres of land into use, and beginning of the second phase of the metro rail project in 2017.

The minister said that the government would spend Rs 2,000 crores for providing 24-hour power supply to the people, Rs 2,500 crores on development of roads and Rs 33,000 crores on implementation of welfare schemes. Welfare schemes would include houses for BPL families whose income was below Rs 6 lakhs a year, he said.

Stating that religious harmony was very important for the development of Hyderabad into a global city, he charged the BJP with encouraging communal politics to win more seats.

Regarding the election campaigning, the IT minister said, "KCR is the most glamorous hero in Telangana and we don't need any film stars to campaign for our Party."

When asked, KTR said that he never dreamt of becoming the Chief Minister, and was capable of doing what he wanted to do for the people in his present position.