Budget Session: Congress Walks Out Of Governor Speech

Congress MLAs and MLCs raised slogans and staged a walk-out today during Telangana Governor E S L Narasimhan's speech highlighting the achievements of the TRS government during his address to the joint session of the state legislature.

The protest by the Congress members, who termed Narasimhan's claims as "blatant lies" in their sloganeering, ironically came at a time when the Governor in his address was expressing hope that the deliberations in the Houses would be constructive and in tune with the aspirations of the people and the confidence that they had reposed in their elected representatives.

The Governor's speech, as is the norm, focused on extolling the ruling government. Flanked by the Chairman of the Legislative Council Swamy Goud and the Speaker of the Legislative Assembly Madhusudhana Chary, he claimed that Telangana was the most happening state in the country, and that its government had embarked upon many innovative steps to give a much-needed boost to the state's economy. He said that the infant state had come to be recognized countrywide for these initiatives in a very short span of time.

Elaborating, the Governor listed out achievements like uninterrupted power supply, revamping of minor irrigation tanks through "Mission Kakatiya", providing for drinking water supply to households through "Mission Bhagiratha", and obtaining the first position in the "Ease of Doing Business" rankings.

The Governor pointed out that as per the advance estimates, Telangana's GSDP was estimated to be Rs. 6.54 lakh crores in 2016-17 at current prices. It was expected to grow at an impressive rate of 13.7% at current prices, compared to the estimated national growth rate of 11.5%. At constant prices of 2011-12, this corresponded to 10.1% growth, as against the corresponding national growth rate of 7.1%.

Narasimhan's speech went on for over 45 minutes, and sounded as expected both like a progress report of the TRS government since the formation of the new state, and like a eulogy. And this predictably inflamed the opposition parties.

Alleging that the Governor was reading the same text for the past three years, Congress Legislature Party leader K Jana Reddy said that there was no mention of the unfulfilled promises of double-bedroom houses, 3-acre plots to dalits and tribals, or BC Sub-Plan in the Governor's speech. Therefore they were constrained to stage a walk-out, he said.

TPCC chief N Uttam Kumar Reddy said that the government had failed to mention the power generation projects from the previous Congress government. Accusing the government of making the Governor speak "utter lies", Reddy pointed out that the government had stated in the last session that the GSDP had decreased, but now made made the Governor say that it had GDP increased. The agriculture sector was in crisis in the State, he said, but the Governor claimed that it was likely to grow at 17.2%.

He also alleged that though the state government was in the first place in corruption, there was no mention of political corruption in the Governor's speech.

Leader Of Opposition in the Council Mohammed Ali Shabbir said that the State had miserably failed in all sectors. He asked the government why it had failed to mention the BC Sub-Plan in the Governor's speech. The Governor routinely read out budget speeches in favor of the state government, he lamented, and alleged that Chief Minister K Chandrashekar Rao had once again deceived the people of Telangana.