TRS, TDP set Telangana House aflutter

Hyderabad: The Telangana Legislative Assembly on Thursday witnessed a war of words between ruling and Opposition members for the first time. The House, which has been confined to administering the oath to newly elected MLAs, election of the Speaker, Deputy Speaker etc and Governor’s speech for the first three days, and remained calm, witnessed verbal duels between TRS and TD members on Thursday.

It all started with TD MLA E. Dayakar Rao who said that the TRS allotted party tickets to family members of Telangana martyrs and students in constituencies where it is weak and cannot win.

He referred to Ms K. Shankaramma, the mother of Srikanth Chary, the student who committed suicide for Telangana, who was fielded by the TRS from Huzurnagar Assembly seat and lost. He also referred to OUJAC leader Mr Pidamarthi Ravi, who was fielded from Sathupally Assembly seat and lost.

“I offered to vacate my seat in Palakurthy if TRS is willing to allot it to Shankaramma. She could have easily won from there. But there was no response,” Mr Rao said.

Legislative Affairs minister Mr T.Harish Rao retorted that the TDP is trying to politicise even the Telangana martyrs issue.

“If your party had real concern for Telangana martyrs, why did you field a candidate against Shankaramma? Our leader KCR began his first speech as Chief Minister remembering Telangana martyrs. He even visited Telangana martrys memorial site before taking oath as CM,” Mr Harish said.

Later, Mr Dayakar read out the Telugu version of the TRS manifesto which stated that all farm loans up to Rs 1 lakh would be waived. KCR immediately intervened and started reading out the English version of it which stated that crop loans of up to Rs 1 lakh would be waived.

“You are trying to attribute the promises to us that we never made. We never said that we will give job to one person in every household, or waive Dwcra loans availed by women self-help groups. Though I was pressurised to include these in our manifesto, I avoided that because I only promise what I can fulfil. I can’t lie,” KCR said.

TD MLA Revanth Reddy's comments on TRS MLA Konda Surekha also led to furore in the House. Mr Reddy said that allowing Konda Surekha to begin the debate on the Governor's speech when he was responsible for police firing on Telangana activists in Warangal reflects how sincere the TRS is in its commitment towards Telangana martyrs.