TRS Flays Amit Shah's Comments

Finance Minister Etela Rajender today lashed out at BJP national president Amit Shah's comments against the TRS government in a public meeting at Suryapet in the Nalgonda district on Friday evening.

Speaking to the media at the TRS Legislature Party office on Saturday, Rajender brushed aside the comments of Shah, including that the Centre had given Telangana Rs. 90,000 crores that it had not used yet, as "mere lies".

Firstly, the Modi government had given Telangana only Rs 36,000 crores so far, he claimed. He alleged that the Modi government had done nothing for Telangana, and did not give the State anywhere near the funds that it should have.

Rajender also challenged Shah to detail under what heads the Centre had given the funds Shah claimed were given to Telangana.

Then, the Finance Minister also expressed surprise over Shah's criticism of the Telangana government when Prime Minister Modi and many other States had appreciated the various welfare schemes being implemented by the TRS government.

"This kind of criticism can only be attributed to the deliberate attempts to malign our government and to the double standards of Amit Shah," he said.

Shah's comments were "immature and purely political", and ones that the people and the government of Telangana were not ready to accept, he said.

Rajender stated that the States would not resort to begging the Centre for funds, and would instead make payments of thousands of crores to the Centre through various taxes.

The two-year rule of the BJP government needed to take a reality check of the support it had left, he said, and added that the Telangana people were firmly with KCR and the TRS government.