Hyderabad:Senior BRS leader and former minister T. Harish Rao on Friday questioned the utility of the government’s Prajavani programme for redressal of grievances, said that this was yet another example of how the Congress had failed to keep its poll-time promises.
The Congress first promised that the Chief Minister would hold ‘praja darbars’ regularly but then scaled it down saying there will be a Prajavani instead where people can submit their petitions.
After collecting just a handful of petitions at the first Prajavani, Chief Minister A. Revanth Reddy has never attended it, Harish Rao claimed. The programme has been so watered down that it is being manned by outsourced staff, Harish Rao said in a statement.
Referring to a reply he received from the government following a Right To Information Act request that he made, Harish Rao said as of December 9, 2024, the government said that Prajavani received 82,955 petitions.
“Of these, officials categorised only 43,272 as valid grievances, rejecting nearly half of the submissions as outside the programme’s scope. Important issues like land disputes, rehabilitation for displaced families, unemployment, and unfulfilled election promises have been excluded from the programme’s ambit,” he said.
As per the government, says ‘grievances’ are complaints or dissatisfaction caused by perceived injustice, unfair treatment, or violations of rights. These cover issues like denial of benefits under government schemes, failure to implement policies, and non-provision of services promised under the Citizen Charter, he said.
Harish Rao added that of the 43,272 grievances accepted, officials claimed to have resolved 27,215. “Reports from the ground reveal that many issues remain unresolved, with files being closed arbitrarily without real solutions,” he said.
“The Congress government’s so-called ‘Praja Palana’ has only brought suffering to the people. Their flagship Prajavani has proven to be nothing more than an empty promise. The first major assurance in their manifesto has been reduced to words without action, leaving the people of Telangana disappointed and betrayed,” Harish Rao said.
