'Swach Hyderabad' campaign is a publicity stunt: Shabbir Ali

Hyderabad, April 30 (INN): Leader of Opposition in Legislative Council Mohammed Ali Shabbir has ridiculed the 'Swach Hyderabad' campaign proposed to be held by Telangana Government from May 16 and described it as a publicity stunt in view of forthcoming GHMC elections.

Addressing a press conference at the Congress Legislature Party office here on Thursday, Shabbir Ali accused Chief Minister K Chandrasehkar Rao of misleading the people with another illusion of 'Swach Hyderabad.'. He said Hyderabad was already a clean and green city and it won many awards during Congress regime from 2004-2014. While the 'Traveler' magazine of the National Geographic ranked Hyderabad as the second 'Must See Destination' in the world, Hyderabad was declared as 'The Best City to Live in India in Mercer's Quality of Living Report 2015."Hyderabad lost its sheen since TRS came to power and KCR wants to spend Rs 1,000 crore to clean the garbage which got accumulated during his 10-month regime," he said.

Shabbir Ali said that the State Government, in its budget for 2015-16 has allocated an amount of just Rs 526 crore for the GHMC. Therefore, the Chief Minister should clarify from which account, the government proposes to spend Rs 1,000 crore for 'Swach Hyderabad' campaign.

The Congress leader also ridiculed KCR's direction to officials to acquire 2,000 acres of land to construct 2.10 lakh houses for the poor. While welcoming the construction of houses for poor, he asked the Chief Minister to clarify whether such a large chunk of land was available in the city. Further, he said for the construction 2.10 lakh units at an average cost of Rs 3.5 lakh, the government would need Rs 7,350 crore. However, the State Government has allocated just Rs 873 crore in its budget for 2015-16 for Housing sector in entire Telangana. Therefore, Shabbir Ali demanded that the State Government convene one or two-day special Assembly and Council sessions to discuss the proposals and make necessary allocations by amending the Annual Budget.

Shabbir Ali said that the Chief Minister has been trying to make people chase mirages. Earlier, KCR promised to develop Telangana like Singapore. Then, he proposed to develop Old City of Hyderabad like Istanbul. Now, he wants Hyderabad to develop like Dallas of US. "While Dallas is spread across 999.3 sq km and has a population of just 12.5 lakh people, GHMC area is spread across 172 sq km and it has a population of nearly 1 crore. There is no comparison between the two cities. KCR changes his model city once in every two months. He must first clarify how he proposes to fund those developments," he said.

'KCR came to power in 2014 elections on the basis of bunch of lies. Now people have understood and realized that he is a habitual liar. Therefore, his lies will not work in the next GHMC elections,' he said.

When asked about Rahul Gandhi's two-day visit to Telangana, Shabbir Ali informed that the AICC Vice-President will participate in padayatra to interact with farmers at several places in the State. The exact dates and places will be finalised soon. Rahul Gandhi will give assurance to the farmers that they were not alone and the Congress party would fight for their rights and get them justice, he said.