The issue of employment generation under the rule of the TRS seems to have become the theme of the campaigns of the Opposition, and as a result also of the ruling party, for the upcoming MLC elections in the graduates' constituencies of Warangal-Khammam-Nalgonda and Hyderabad-Rangareddy-Mahabubnagar.
TPCC chief and MP N Uttam Kumar Reddy today also girlled the TRS goverment on the matter and asked Telangana Chief Minister K Chandrashekar Rao to release the data on unemployment in the state.
He made the demand while addressing a meeting with the office holders of the various TPCC cells at the Gandhi Bhavan.
Disputing the claims made by IT and Industries Minister K T Rama Rao, that the TRS had given
government jobs to 1.32 lakh people in the last six years, Reddy claimed that the unemployment figures in Telangana had doubled ever since the party's rule began, in 2014, and demanded that the CM release the district-wise unemployment figures to the public if he wished to disprove the aforementioned data.
"The claims being made by the ruling party are all false - as per the latest figures available to us, as many as 19,43,783 qualified educated youth have registered themselves with the Telangana State Public Service Commission (TSPSC) alone. Further, there are over 10 lakh skilled/unskilled youth across the state who are currently unemployed. And this figure does not even include the lakhs of people who lost their jobs during the recent lockdown. The CM should release the district-wise unemployment figures. He will of course be reluctant to do so since he has cheated nearly 30 lakh unemployed youth. After promising them a monthly unemployment dole of Rs 3,016, KCR has done nothing to provide the same despite having been in power for two terms. Since KTR has been claiming that the promise will soon be fulfilled, he should ask his father, the CM, to officially release the unemployment data as part of the process of identifying the beneficiaries for the long-awaited unemployment dole," he said.
The TPCC chief also faulted the ruling party for "forgetting" all its election-time promises after coming to power.
"The TRS has gotten into the habit of making grand promises in the run-up to any elections in the state. The minute the elections are over, however, the party's leaders forget all about their promises. They just parrot the assurances again when they have to face any by-elections or other local-body elections, and cite the Model Code of Conduct as the reason for the delay in the fulfilment of the same. But this time around, the people of the state are unlikely to buy into such lies as they have understood the pattern of cheating and deception practiced by the CM and his colleagues. Everyone also knows that the CM has plundered our state's resources by handing over its reins to the mafia," he alleged.
Reddy then lashed out at the Congress' other rival, the BJP, and said, "Quite like the TRS, the BJP-led Centre, headed by Prime Minister Narendra Modi, has also been cheating the unemployed youth since 2014. The PM had promised to give 2 crore people jobs every year. Going by his words, his government should have created 14 crore new jobs by now. Of course this is not what happened. Instead, more than 18 crore people lost their jobs due to the flawed policy-making of the Modi regime. An example of this is the fact that the Centre has been taking away lakhs of job posts reserved for the SCs, STs and BCs in the nation's PSUs by selling the companies to private players. It has also hurt the youth and IT professionals of our state by dropping the Information Technology Investment Region project, which was sanctioned by the previous Congress-led UPA regime. The project, if implemented, would have created over 50 lakh jobs in Hyderabad and its neighbouring districts. The Centre has also not established the railway coach factory in Kazipet, the steel factory in Bayyaram, or the AIIMS in Bibinagar, which were all promised in the Andhra Pradesh Reorganisation Act. The projects would have generated lakhs of employment opportunities in the state."
"Neither the BJP nor the TRS can seek votes in Telangana on moral grounds as they have betrayed the people of the state. The BJP only tries to retain strength by stirring up communal trouble and the TRS buys voters using false promises. In this situation, the Congress is the one party truly concerned by issues of social justice and welfare," he added.
The Congress leader asked all the unemployed youth in the two constituencies to "unite" and vote in favour of the candidates of his party, Ramulu Naik and G Chinna Reddy, in the upcoming elections to teach the TRS and the BJP the "lessons they deserved", and promised that the two candidates, if elected, would pressurise both the state and the union governments to fulfil all the "unkept promises".
He also asked the TPCC officials present at the meeting to campaign hard across all the six districts to ensure the victory of Ramulu Naik and Chinna Reddy.
The meeting was attended by various state-level Congress officials, including NSUI Telangana State President Balamoori Venkat, Telangana Youth Congress President Shiva Sena Reddy, SC department Chairman Preetham Nagarigari, minorities department Chairman Shaik Abdullah Sohail, NRI cell Chairman Vinod Kumar, ST department Chairman Jagan Naik and fishermen cell Chairman Mettu Sai, and several senior party leaders.
Later in the day, Reddy also addressed two election meetings at Khammam and Kothagudem.