BJP will make Warangal a smart city, says Rajnath Singh

WARANGAL: It was the Narendra Modi government which put the country on the path of development. As part of it, the Centre has taken up the responsibility of turning Warangal into a smart city, home minister Rajnath Singh said on Wednesday. 

Speaking at a public meeting in support of BJP candidate M. Dharma Rao in Hanamkonda, he noted that Janga Reddy from Warangal was one of the only two BJP MPs who had won in the 1984 elections.

Mr Rajnath Singh said India has a good image in the international community. "In 2014 in regard to the economy size, India was placed at the ninth position out of 10 countries. Within four and half years, we have jumped to the sixth position. By the next financial year we will be in the 5th position and by 2030 in the third position.”

“The country is developing very fast. An international report says five crore people have now gone above the poverty line. By 2022 there will be no family without a house,” Mr Singh said.

In Telangana state, 4,500 farmers had committed suicide. Many farmer welfare schemes were introduced by the BJP. “We reduced the price of the fertilisers. By 2022 we will double the income of the farmers,” he said. 

Mr Singh recalled that the Vajpayee government had created Chhattisgarh, Jharkand and Uttarakand which had forged ahead in terms of development and are now looked upon as model states. “The two Telugu states are not receiving any development,” he noted.

“People must question why this is happening. There is no dearth of natural resources in Telangana. During the 13th Finance Commission the Congress government gave only Rs 16,500 crore for Telangana but in the 14th Finace Commission the BJP gave Rs 1.5 lakh crore but still the state remains underdeveloped. The people must question this. There is lack of political will in Telangana,” he said.

The minister alleged that Chief Minister K. Chandrasekhar Rao was diverting the attention of the people by raking up the minority reservation issue. “People must not encourage communal politics. We live in the country which believes in unity. We all must live as one family," he said.

Calling the TD-Congress alliance “unholy”, he said the people were not welcoming this. The TD was created by the late N. T. Rama Rao against Congress policies. 

He pointed out that Mr Rao in his speech at Adilabad on Thursday had said voters were not mature and asked under what circumstance he came to be elected as Chief Minister.