Telangana Assembly election: Rahul Gandhi promises Jal, Jungle, Jameen

WARANGAL: AICC president Rahul Gandhi on the second day of his campaign in the state alleged that the the TRS government under Chief Minister K. Chandrashekar Rao did not care for the rights of the people, especially the Adivasis.

Addressing a public meeting at Bhupalapalli on Thursday, he said that while the UPA government has introduced the tribal rights Act to protect the rights of the people, the BJP-led NDA government at the Centre and the TRS government in the state were ignoring it. “Prime Minister Narendra Modi has weakened the Act and KCR has annihilated it in Telangana state,” he said.            

He noted that he was campaigning in a constituency which had a majority of Adivasis. He promised that as soon as the Congress forms government, the Tribal Rights Bill would be implemented in a full-fledged manner, and water, jungle and forest land — jal, jungle, jameen — would be handed over to the Adivasis. “We will hand over certificates to podu farmers,” he said, referring to land rights to tribal farmers.

He said the tribal university had not yet taken shape in the state. “We have clearly written in our manifesto that the tribal university would be sanctioned here,” he said.

Addressing the issues of Singareni workers, he said Mr Rao had duped them with fake promises. He said the services of workers who were working on contract and temporary basis would be regularised.

He alleged that the NDA government wanted to privatise all companies. “The PM has taken the Rafale aircraft contract from the HAL which is government run and scripted a Rs 30,000-crore profit for Anil Ambani. The Congress will not let Singareni be privatised,” he said.