Governor's Address Worthless, All Lies: Opposition

Terming Governor E S L Narasimhan's address to the joint sitting of the Telangana legislature today as "worthless", the Opposition parties alleged that the government had made the Governor speak "lies".

The Budget Session of the Telangana legislature began with the Governor's address. After his speech, the Opposition parties — the Congress, BJP, CPI, CPM and YSRCP - alleged that the address was similar to the Chief Minister's regular speeches, and that it had nothing new in it.

Speaking at the Assembly Media Point, Congress senior leader G Chinna Reddy alleged that the Governor's address was insipid.

"As an Opposition party we expected a lot from the Governor's speech, but it was unenthusiastic," he said. "The Governor said in his speech that the growth rate of the State was 11.7%, which is wrong. The actual agriculture growth rate was minus 0.4%, but the Governor has mentioned it as 0.8%. The government has given a wrong growth rate even for the industrial sector. There was also no mention of employment, fee reimbursement and drinking water in the rural areas in the Governor's speech," he said.

Describing the government as anti-rural and anti-farmer, CLP deputy leader T Jeevan Reddy alleged that it was terrible that the government had failed to give priority to the drought conditions prevailing in the State when it had given priority to "dustbins".

He said that the Governor's address had failed to mention the drought mandals. He also alleged that it was shameful on the part of the government to mention the Godavari water agreement with Maharashtra as its own forgetting that the agreements were in continuation of earlier agreements.

He also said that the Chief Minister had no right to rule the State as he had failed to identify the martyrs of the statehood movement.

MLC Ponguleti Sudhakar Reddy alleged that the Governor's address was a "KCR Mark speech", and showed a "Bangaru Telangana cinema". He asserted that the government made the Governor speak "lies" in the legislature, and silenced the Opposition parties with the Assembly Rules Committee's new decisions.

Uttam Kumar Reddy said that the Governor had tried to project TRS government as pious, and to give moral lectures.

"The Governor said that our legislature is the sanctum sanctorum of democracy, forgetting that the legislature included members who had defected from other Parties to the TRS in open violation of the Anti-Defection Law. The Governor himself did not take any action on several petitions submitted by the Opposition parties against the MLAs and MLCs who had defected to other Parties," he said.

Telangana TDP leader Revanth Reddy said that the TRS government had only two more chances to present the Budget in the Assembly. He described the last two Budgets as "fiction", and added that the farmers' loan wavier was not implemented properly by the Telangana government.

BJP Floor leader Dr K Laxman, giving his reaction to the Governor's address, alleged that the Governor had read the election manifesto of TRS. The Governor had repeated the first and second years' addresses all over again, he said.

There was no mention of 12% reservation for tribals, three-acre land for SCs and STs, the BC Sub-Plan, drought conditions and how the government would pool the money for the Mission Kakatiya and Mission Bhagiratha schemes, Laxman said. The Governor's speech had also failed to mention the pending bills of the Indiramma Houses scheme, he pointed out.

Alleging that there was no protection to women in Telangana, Laxman said that it was nothing but lies to say that the law and order situation was good in the State.

Opposition leader in the Telangana Legislative Council Mohammad Shabbir Ali termed the Governor's speech as hopeless and filled with falsehoods. He alleged that the government had made the Governor join the "bhajanaparula sangham" of the TRS.