Ponnala throws dare to BRS, seeks open debate on power purchase agreements

Hyderabad: Former PCC president Ponnala Lakshmaiah dared the BRS government hold an open debate on power purchase agreements where he said a lot of irregularities had been taking place. Chief Minister K. Chandrasekhar Rao should explain the purchase of power to the people, he said.

Speaking to reporters at Gandhi Bhavan here on Friday, the former minister said that banks had frozen the accounts of around 16 lakh farmers due to the delay in the crop loan waiver. Farmers are forced to borrow from private persons at exorbitant interest rates, he said.

Besides, he pointed out, there was no helping hand for 14 lakh tenant farmers. Of 55 lakh farmers in the state, 35 lakh were neither getting Rythu Bandhu nor crop loan waiver, he alleged.

Lakshmaiah said non-farmers were getting financial aid under Rythu Bandhu scheme. Chandrashekar Rao was spending money earned from corruption in other states for his political benefits.  Rao had failed to implement his poll promises to the farming community in the state but was speaking about ‘kisan raj’ in the country, he said.

The former TPCC chief said the BRS government was not able to state how much land the Kaleshwaram lift irrigation scheme was irrigating. During the BRS regime, 64 IT companies had shut down in the state while only two or three new ones and come up, he said.

Lakshmaiah ridiculed the BJP’s claim of Mission 90 and said in a mocking manner that it should declare that it would win all 119  seats.