Bandh Has No Public Support: TRS Ministers

Minister for Commercial Taxes Talasani Srinivas Yadav criticized the Opposition Parties for "enacting dramas" on the crop loan waiver issue.

Addressing the media at the Secretariat, Yadav accused the Opposition of indulging in mud-slinging only to garner cheap publicity.

The various ministers of the TRS would take up tours in the Assembly segments of the Opposition's MLAs to bring out the facts on the implementation of the welfare schemes, and expose the Opposition members' misdeeds, he said.

Chief Minister K Chandrashekar Rao had already informed the House about the plans to waive off the remaining part of the promised crop loan waiver in one go, he said. Steps in that direction were being taken, and a decision would soon be taken on sourcing the funds to clear the arrears, he said.

Given that, the bandh called for by the Opposition Parties on October 10 demanding a one-time settlement of the pending crop loan waiver was of no use, and just inconvenienced the citizens of the State, he said.

He lampooned the Opposition parties for not addressing the same problem during their rules. He also flayed them for criticizing the CM and the ministers in the morning for political mileage, and then coming to the same ministers in the evening for funds for welfare schemes.

He also asked why the BJP leaders of the State could not impress upon the Narendra Modi government at the Centre to release the Rs 8,500 crores needed for the pending crop loan waiver. If Kishen Reddy and K Lakshman could bring those funds from the Centre, the TRS government would repay them, he said.

The government was not going to back down on its assurance of waiving off the rest of the promised crop loan waiver in one go, Yadav asseverated.

He refused to speak on Home Minister Nayani Narasimha Reddy's comment that he (Talasani) had not resigned from his MLA post.

"I will confine myself to the crop loans' issue," he said.

Agriculture Minister Pocharam Srinivas Reddy also slammed the Opposition leaders for the October 10 bandh call.

He said that the bandh had no public support, and was being forced upon the people. Though the Congress, the Telugu Desam Party and the BJP had joined hands on this issue, the people would not support them, he said.

The government had committed to waiving off the pending part of the promised crop loan waiver in one go, and despite that the Opposition was making a hue and cry for political reasons, he alleged.

He also mocked how the same leaders who did not bother about the plight of the farmers earlier were now taking up protests and "bharosa yatras". There was no bharosa in the public for these leaders, he claimed.

The minister said that the common people were not participating in the bandh, which would therefore be a failure.

If the TDP and its ally the BJP were so committed, they could ask the Centre to give financial assistance to the Telangana government to waive off remaining crop loans in one go, he suggested.