Seethakka Rebuts KTR's Debt Accusations

In response to BRS working president K T Rama Rao's accusations that the Revanth Reddy government had accumulated a record-breaking Rs 80,500 crore in loans in just 10 months, Minister for Panchayat Raj Seethakka took to Twitter to issue a sharp rebuttal.

She claimed that the previous regime led by KTR's party had pushed the State into a situation where new loans had to be taken just to pay the interest on existing debts.

She said that during the nine and a half years of BRS rule the State had incurred loans amounting to a staggering Rs 7 lakh crore, and that on average Rs 207 crore from the public exchequer was being spent every day just to pay the interest and installments on these loans, coming to Rs 6,000 crore a month.

She criticised the previous administration for accumulating loans recklessly and burdening the financial system with interest payments, and called KTR talking about debts being taken a case of the Devil quoting the Scriptures.

Seethakka added that in addition to the loans it had taken, the previous government had failed to clear several outstanding dues too. These included Rs 5,000 crore for fee reimbursements, unpaid bills for Aarogyasri, pending payments to contractors, dues to electricity companies, rents for Gurukulam buildings and retirement benefits for government employees.

She asked how the BRS leaders could now criticize the debts being taken when they had themselves left every sector burdened with hundreds of crores in unpaid dues.

Seethakka claimed that the current government was working to stabilise the economy. She mentioned that despite that it had also already waived Rs 18,000 crore worth of farm loans, and had also implemented several welfare schemes, including free bus travel for women, gas cylinders at Rs 500, and 200 units of free electricity to the public. Additionally, the government had also filled over 60,000 government job vacancies, initiated new housing schemes, and launched other significant welfare programs.