Swachch Hyderabad A Publicity Stunt: T-Congress

The Leader of the Opposition in the Telangana Legislative Council Mohammed Ali Shabbir ridiculed the Swachch Hyderabad campaign proposed to be held by the Telangana government from May 16, and described it as a publicity stunt in view of the forthcoming GHMC elections.

Addressing a press conference at the Congress Legislature Party office on Thursday, Shabbir Ali accused Chief Minister K Chandrasehkar Rao of misleading the people with another illusion.

He said that Hyderabad was already a clean and green city, and had won many awards during the Congress regime of 2004-2014.

The Traveler magazine of National Geographic had ranked Hyderabad as the second "Must See Destination" in the world, and the city was declared as "The Best City to Live in India" in Mercer's Quality of Living Report 2015.

"Hyderabad lost its sheen since the TRS came to power, and KCR wants to spend Rs 1,000 crores to clean the garbage which got accumulated during his 10-month regime," he said.

Shabbir Ali said that the state government, in its budget for 2015-16, had allocated an amount of just Rs 526 crores for the GHMC. Therefore, the Chief Minister should clarify from which account the government proposed to spend the Rs 1,000 crores for the Swachch Hyderabad campaign.

The Congress leader also ridiculed KCR's direction to officials to acquire 2,000 acres of land to construct 2.10 lakh houses for the poor. While welcoming the construction of houses for the poor, he asked the Chief Minister to clarify whether such a large chunk of land was available in the city.

Further, he said that for the construction 2.10 lakh units at an average cost of Rs 3.5 lakh per house, the government would need Rs 7,350 crores. However, the state government had allocated just Rs 873 crores in its budget for 2015-16 for the housing sector in the whole of Telangana. Therefore, Shabbir Ali demanded that the state government convene a one or two-day special Assembly and Council session to discuss the proposals and make the necessary allocations by amending the annual budget.

Shabbir Ali said that the Chief Minister was trying to make people chase mirages. Earlier, KCR had promised to develop Telangana to resemble Singapore. Then, he proposed to develop the Old City of Hyderabad to resemble Istanbul. Now, he wants Hyderabad to be developed to resemble Dallas of the US.

"While Dallas is spread across 999.3 sq km and has a population of just 12.5 lakh people, the GHMC area is spread across 172 sq km and has a population of nearly 1 crore. There is no comparison between the two cities. KCR changes his model city once every two months. He must first clarify how he proposes to fund those developments," he said.

"KCR came to power in the 2014 elections on the basis of a bunch of lies. Now people have understood and realized that he is a habitual liar. Therefore, his lies will not work in the next GHMC elections," he said.

When asked about Rahul Gandhi's two-day visit to Telangana, Shabbir Ali informed that the AICC Vice-President would participate in a padayatra to interact with farmers at several places in the state. The exact dates and places would be finalised soon. Rahul Gandhi would assure the farmers that they were not alone and that the Congress party would fight for their rights and get them justice, he said. (INN)