KCR has less focus on development: Shabbir Ali

Hyderabad, March 12 (INN): Leader of Opposition in Telangana Legislative Council Mohammed Ali Shabbir has alleged that Chief Minister K. Chandrashekar Rao was more focused on encouraging defections in opposition parties than concentrating on developing the State.

Speaking on Motion of Thanks on Governor's Address in Legislative Council on Saturday, Shabbir Ali said instead of achieving the goal of 'Bangaru Telangana', the Chief Minister was spending more time on offering TRS 'khandwas' to the legislators of opposition parties. He said the dominance of politics over development was clearly reflected in the address by Governor E.S.L. Narasimhan to the joint session of Telangana Assembly and Council on March 10. He said the Governor's address neither sounded like the 'Progress Report' of TRS Government, nor it served like a 'Vision Document'. "It was a completely directionless speech by the Governor," he said amid strong protest by the members of Treasury benches.

Shabbir Ali also slammed the Governor for skipping the issue of Telangana Martyrs in his speech. This triggered protest by the TRS members who alleged that the Leader of Opposition was raising a subject which is irrelevant to Governor's address. Defending his stand, Shabbir Ali said Telangana became a reality due to the supreme sacrifices made by the martyrs and the TRS Government has comfortably neglected their families.

Shabbir Ali said that the pact with Maharashtra over construction of barrages over Godavari was neither historic nor exemplary. He said similar pacts were signed in 1975, 1980, 2012 and now in 2016. He said that the government has raised the cost of the project from Rs. 38,000 Crore to Rs. 83,000 crore while the ayacut remained at 16 lakh acres. At this rate, he said the project would cost nearly Rs. 5 lakh per acre while Rs. 73,000 per acre would be required for their maintenance. As per Central Water Commission guidelines, the income per acre should be at least three times more than the maintenance cost. For drought hit and Agency areas, the income should be at least double than the maintenance cost. However, in this case, annual income per acre will be about Rs. 35,000. In view of huge construction and maintenance cost, this project will not be viable and the CWC would not recommend it for National Project status, he said.

Raising the issue of gang-rape of a Dalit girl in Karimnagar district, Shabbir Ali said that the TRS Government did not take timely action in the case. Similarly, he said that the response of TRS Government in the suicide case of Dalit scholar of HCU Rohit Vemula was highly objectionable. He said while several national leaders including Rahul Gandhi visited the university, KCR decided against travelling just 8 KM to visit the university. He asked as to why the TRS Government was so allergic to Dalits.

He strongly objected to the non-mention of 12% Muslim and ST reservation issue in the Governor's Address. He said that the TRS Government was also not serious on defending 4% Muslim reservation in the Supreme Court. He said when the matter came up for hearing before the Constitutional Bench in the Supreme Court on February 29, no representative of Telangana Government was present in the court. He informed that he wrote a letter to the Chief Minister on this issue.

Describing the Governor's Address as direction-less, Shabbir Ali said that the Congress party was opposing it.