Vote for Congress in MLCs polls, Uttam urges graduates

Hyderabad: Telangana Pradesh Congress Committee (TPCC) president and Nalgonda MP N. Uttam Kumar Reddy asked graduates and employees to vote for the Congress party if they wanted a rollback of the PRC recommendations on house rent allowance and fitment.

Uttam Kumar Reddy appealed to people to elect Congress candidates to “restore morality in politics” and “democracy in Telangana”.

He expressed confidence that the Congress would win elections for the Mahabubnagar-Rangareddy-Hyderabad and Khammam-Warangal-Nalgonda graduates’ constituencies of Telangana Legislative Council.

Mr Reddy said that both their party candidates, Chinna Reddy and Ramulu Naik, were highly capable of serving people, especially in addressing the needs of graduates, including state employees and jobless youth.

“Telangana became a reality due to the struggle and sacrifices made by students. Thousands of government employees too risked their jobs and careers of their children by participating in the Sakala Janula Samme'for over 40 days to achieve statehood. However, neither students nor employees benefited after the formation of Telangana. Chief Minister K. Chandrashekhar Rao and his family took control of all resources and neglected everyone else,” he alleged.

The TPCC chief said that “educated youth must unitedly defeat the corrupt and unethical regimes” of the TRS and BJP.

Criticising Chief Minister Rao, Mr Reddy said that the promise to fill one lakh vacant posts in government department before the 2014 elections still remains unfulfilled.

The Pay Revision Commission, in its recent report, has disclosed that over 1.91 lakh posts were lying vacant in various departments. He said the delay in the recruitment process has deprived thousands of students, who participated in the Telangana movement, from getting a government job.

Similarly, the Congress leader said that the TRS government lured jobless youth in 2018 Assembly elections by promising them a monthly unemployment allowance of '3,016. However, this promise too has not been fulfilled, even after nearly two-and-a-half years. He alleged that the Chief Minister has been openly cheating jobless youth ever since he came to power in June 2014.

Mr Reddy also alleged that gross injustice was being done to government employees. He said that the revision of pay scales was long overdue. He further said that the new PRC has disappointed employees by recommending a fitment of a mere 7.3 per cent. He reiterated the demand that employees be given a fitment of not less than 43 per cent.

Further, he demanded that the state government reject PRC’s recommendation on reducing the HRA. He said that HRA should be increased as per existing rental values in Hyderabad and other locations.