Harish Rao takes a dig at ‘false’ propaganda of \'Bharatiya Jhoota Party\'

HYDERABAD: Finance minister T. Harish Rao on Friday termed the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) as ‘Bharatiya Jhoota Party’. He lashed out at the BJP leaders for spreading lies by way of statements, pamphlets and social media about the Centre’s contribution to the state in pensions and other schemes, while speaking to the media at Siddipet.

Harish Rao listed out 11 alleged lies of BJP leaders, including that the Union government is giving Rs 1,600 out of Rs 2,016 towards Aasara pension for bidi workers in Telangana state, Rs 6,000 to Rs 8,000 out of  Rs 13,000 given under KCR Kits and spending `50,000 on every sheep unit for shepherd families.

Further, he said, the BJP was claiming that the state government had shifted the ESI Hospital to Gajwel, which was sanctioned to Chegunta mandal in Dubbak constituency, by releasing Rs 25 crore by the Centre. He mentioned that the BJP leaders were falsely claiming that the Centre was giving `Rs 9 out of Rs 30 being spent on subsidy ration rice and that a polytechnic college granted for Dubbak was shifted to Siddipet.

He said that the BJP leaders are stating that Chief Minister K. Chandrashekar Rao is trying to install electricity metres for agriculture borewells and the Centre has granted Rs 5,500 crore to help the local government procure agriculture produce. Harish Rao said that BJP also claimed that the Centre has granted Rs 5,500 crore to help the local government to procure agriculture produce.

The BJP was claiming that the house, where the police seized over `Rs 8 lakh, did not belong to a direct relative of BJP candidate M. Raghunandan Rao. He pointed out that Raghunandan Rao had himself claimed that police had raided eight houses of his relatives and the amount seized was neither his nor of his relatives.
Harish Rao clarified that the BJP-led government’s contribution towards bidi workers’ pension is zero. He alleged that the GST imposed by Centre had affected the livelihood of bidi workers because the demand had dwindled due to higher prices.

The finance minister said that the entire expenditure of KCR Kits was borne by the state government. On contribution to sheep units, he said that the beneficiary’s contribution is Rs 31,250 (25 per cent) while the state government was bearing the remainder Rs 93,750. He said that the Centre has not sanctioned any hospital or a grant to Chegunta so far and polytechnic college for Dubbak.

He clarified that the Centre is giving Rs 3 kg rice for only half of the ration card holders in Telangana state while the state government is distributing Rs 1 per kg rice to all beneficiaries.

Referring to the claim of electricity meters, he said that the Centre had tried to lure the state government by offering Rs 2,500 crore special grant to make the TRS government install metres. However, the Chief Minister has opposed it strongly.

Pointing out the claim of Centre’s contribution in rice procurement, he explained that Centre has just issued consent to help the civil supplies department to borrow from National Cooperative Development Corporation, but the state government has decided against it as the interest rate is high comparatively.  Refuting the claims of Raghunandan Rao he wanted to know why BJP workers and the candidate rushed to the place if the cash was not his and owner of the house was not his relative. He said people of Dubbak constituency were wise and would see through the BJP lies and vote for TRS yet again.