KCR good at planning corruption: Digvijay

Hyderabad, Sept 20 (INN): AICC General Secretary Digvijay Singh has alleged that Telangana Chief Minister K. Chandrashekar Rao was good at planning corruption, but not welfare schemes for the poor.

Addressing the concluding session of two-day training programme for Congress Sarpanches and Upa-Sarpanches at KJR Gardens in Secunderabad on Tuesday, Digvijay Singh said that the TRS Government planned no schemes for the development at village, mandal or district-levels. Instead, he said that the Chief Minister came up with schemes like Water Grid so as to indulge in corruption of thousands of crores. He alleged that the project costs were escalated to receive huge kickbacks. He questioned KCR on the status of Intensive Household Survey which the State Government conducted immediately after coming to power.

Praising the Congress Sarpanches for staying with the party, Digvijay Singh accused the Chief Minister of luring and intimidating the elected representatives of opposition parties to join the ruling party. "KCR family is buying the MLAs and other elected representatives as vegetables. This is an insult to all elected representatives. KCR is accumulating huge illegal wealth with a plan to buy votes in next elections. However, the Chief Minister must realise that voters of Telangana are not for sale," he said.

The Congress leader also slammed the TRS Government for not fulfilling promises like providing three acres of land to each Dalit family and double bed room houses for poor. "KCR is busy feeding his own family," he alleged.

Digvijay Singh said that the State Government was not providing funds and powers to Gram Panchyats. He said that the State Government deducted utility bills amount from the funds released by the 14th Finance Commission to Gram Panchayats. He said it was late Prime Minister Rajiv Gandhi who decentralised the development process. Instead of confining the power to nearly 5,000 elected representatives, nearly 36 lakh people were made part of the decision making process in the country.

The AICC leader asked Telangana Congress to enlighten all Sarpanches of their powers. He also urged the party to support the Sarpanches if they are threatened or harassed by the TRS Government.

Speaking about Polavaram project, Digvijay Singh said it was legal binding on the Central Government to construct the Polavaram project as it was accorded the status of National Project under Andhra Pradesh Reorganisation Act, 2014. However, instead of giving Special Category Status to Andhra Pradesh, the Prime Minister wants to give the "lollipop" of Polavarm to AP Chief Minister N. Chandrababu Naidu. He said that government should also clarify whether or not they got environment clearances for Polavaram project. Further, the government should also take consent from the Tribals who would be displaced due to submergence of their villages. He said compensation to the outsees should be paid as per the Land Acquisition Act, 2013.

Earlier, TPCC President N. Uttam Kumar Reddy demanded that the Central Government take over the Polavaram project from AP Government. He feared that the AP Government might cause damage to Telangana's interest by increasing the area of submergence of land in Telangana, change in design and ecological imbalance. He said that the Centre should not fund AP Government, but construct the project under its direct control.

The training programme was inaugurated by former union minister Mani Shankar Aiyar. AICC SC Department Chairman K. Raju, AICC Secretary Dr. R.C. Khuntia, Leaders of Opposition in Assembly and Council K. Jana Reddy and Mohammed Ali Shabbir respectively, TPCC Vice-President Mallu Bhatti Vikramarka, Training Dept Convener Ponnam Prabhakar and other experts also addressed the training programme.