Primary Education Minister S Sailajanath has accused the Telugu Desam Party of adopting contradictory stands over the SC/ST Sub-Plan Bill.
Talking to reporters at the Congress Legislature Party office on Wednesday, Sailajanath disputed TDP leaders' repeated claims that they were not against the Sub-Plan Bill. He said that despite making such claims, the TDP leaders had tried hard to stop the bill both in the Legislative Assembly and the Council.
He said that while the TDP, along with other opposition parties, had sought certain amendments in the bill in the Legislative Assembly, the same objections were raised in the Council.
Sailajanath said that although Chief Minister N Kiran Kumar Reddy had specifically clarified that spending could not be done as per SC categorisation due to an order of the Supreme Court, the opposition parties had forced a division on the issue.
He alleged that the TDP was unable to "digest" the fact that the Congress government had "created history" by becoming the first state in the country to introduce the SC/ST Sub-Plan Bill.
The minister said that while the Congress was taking practical steps for the development of SCs and STs, TDP leaders were simply making tall claims and expressing sympathy with Dalits and Girijans. (INN)