Congress urges Center provide Rs 5,000 cr for ‘Liberation Day’

Hyderabad: The Congress on Saturday welcomed the Union government decision to celebrate ‘Hyderabad Liberation Day’, accompanied by a demand that the BJP-led Union government release Rs 5,000 crore for the year-long celebrations marking the annexation of Hyderabad State into the Indian Union.

Speaking to media persons in Munugode, Telangana Pradesh Congress Committee president A. Revanth Reddy said that Hyderabad State was freed and democracy was achieved, after thousands sacrificed fighting valiantly to forces of Nizam’s state. He felt that Nalgonda was among the forefront which led an armed struggle against the monarchy.

“It is high time the occasion is celebrated. But BJP and TRS are determined to create further differences in the name of religion and region. If the Center was serious about it should release Rs 5,000 crore for year-long celebrations,” he said.

While referring to earlier occasions, where TRS had failed to recognise as a state celebration, the Congress leader said that Chief Minister K. Chandrashekar Rao after coming to power had failed to observe ‘Merger Day’, the practice the Congress had followed for years. “KCR should apologise to people of Telangana for not observing this till now,” he demanded.

Referring to the history of Congress, Revanth Reddy said that it was all due to the efforts of first Prime Minister Jawaharlal Nehru and the then home minister Sardar Vallabhbhai Patel that the Nizam’s dominion was merged into a nation. “Where were your parties then? The BJP has a history of 41 years and TRS has a history of 21 years. Ours is a history of 140 years and it was only because of Sonia Gandhi’s resolve that Telangana was achieved through bifurcation from AP,” he added.