Telangana Pradesh Congress Committee (TPCC) President N Uttam Kumar Reddy appealed to the Congress party workers to make the next phase of the Praja Chaitanya Bus Yatra successful.
The Congress has made elaborate arrangements in all the seven constituencies where the bus yatra is scheduled to happen from 13th to 19th May. The TPCC chief also had a live interaction with the party workers on Facebook on Friday night. He said that the yatra would resume on May 13 with a public meeting in Mancherial, and that would be followed by meetings in Chennur on May 14, Sirpur Kagaznagar on May 15, Asifabad on May 16, Bellampalli on May 17, Warangal (East) on May 18 and Wardhannapet on May 19.
He said that a total of 32 Assembly constituencies had been covered in the previous phases of the bus yatra, and that the response to the yatra and other programmes being held by the party clearly showed that the Congress was coming to power in the next elections. He expressed confidence that this phase too would be quite successful.
The TPCC chief said that the
Rythu Bandhu scheme launched by the TRS government was nothing more than an election gimmick. He said that Chief Minister K Chandrashekar Rao was distributing Rs. 4,000 per acre to farmers only to shield himself from their ire.
"KCR neglected farmers for the last four years, and is now trying to pacify them by offering various sops. He did not even express condolences when over 4,500 farmers committed suicides, and is now trying to project himself as a 'rythu bandhu'. The people should be cautioned against these cheap tactics of KCR," he told the party workers.
The government was also yet to pay the interest amount on the waived off crop loans, and was also avoiding paying 25% of the MSP as bonus on all crops to the farmers, he added.
Reddy also slammed KCR for misusing public funds for his personal publicity. The state government had not paid compensation of Rs. 6 lakhs warranted by a GO to the families of any of the nearly 4,500 farmers who committed suicides, but had spent hundreds of crores on giving publicity to the Rythu Bandhu scheme, he claimed.
The TPCC chief asked the Congress workers to explain to the people how the previous Congress regimes had ensured the welfare of the farming community. He said that the previous Congress regime had waived off crop loans in a single take, provided free power, and supplied seeds and fertilizers at subsidised rates.
Stating that the list of the TRS government's failures was too long, he asked the party workers to stay united, calm and organised to support the various sections of the society that had been cheated by KCR. He said that all leaders of the Congress would participate in the bus yatra and address meetings at various places.