TPCC head and MP N Uttam Kumar Reddy today strongly condemned the Modi-led Centre for "failing" to address the continuous increase in the prices of petrol and diesel in the nation.
He said that the BJP, which had promised to reduce inflation within 100 days of coming to power, had only succeeded in burdening the people of the country even more.
"The petrol prices in the country are about to hit the century mark - a litre of petrol in Hyderabad today costs Rs 92.84 while the cost for a litre of diesel is only slightly lower at Rs 86.93. Similarly, the prices of non-subsidised LPG cylinders have been seeing a sharp increase across India. This is just burdening our already distressed poor and middle-class population," Reddy said.
He also slammed the Modi government for selling public sector undertakings (PSUs) to private parties, and alleged that the latter had been selling even profit-making PSUs to private firms.
"The BJP-led Centre has been selling away even profit-making PSUs to private players. This will have a very negative impact on the employment opportunities in the country as privatisation will inevitably lead to mass layoffs. Lakhs of jobs under the reserved category, for BCs, SCs and STs, will also be lost as private firms will not continue any caste-based quotas. Like our state government, the Centre too seems unconcerned for the people," the Congress leader said.
(Recently, the Centre has been drawing a lot of flak for privatising PSUs. Some days ago, its decision to privatise Andhra Pradesh's historic Visakhapatnam Steel Plant caused many leaders and workers' unions in the state to
launch massive protests against the move. TDP MLA Ganta Srinivasa Rao even
tendered his resignation in protest.)
"Both the TRS and the BJP are two sides of the same coin. People should teach the two parties an apt lesson in the upcoming graduates' constituencies' MLC elections and the Nagarjuna Sagar by-election. After all, both the Modi regime and the TRS regime have cheated the unemployed youth and other sections of society - while Prime Minister Modi failed to provide 2 crore jobs a year despite having promised that he would, Chief Minister K Chandrashekar Rao has failed to fulfil his promise of giving one member of each family in the state a job. The CM also did not keep his word of starting an unemployment dole. It is unfortunate that the faulty policy-making of both regimes has only led to the loss of crores of existing jobs. After all this, neither the TRS nor the BJP has any right to seek the votes of the people of the state for the MLC elections or the by-election," Reddy added.
Saying this, he appealed to the graduates in the Mahabubnagar-Rangareddy-Hyderabad and Khammam-Warangal-Nalgonda graduates' constituencies to vote in favour of the Congress candidates, G Chinna Reddy and Ramulu Naik respectively, in the upcoming MLC elections.