Taking a jibe at the ruling dispensation in Telangana, BJP State President G Kishan Reddy on Wednesday said the BRS government in the state cannot run without “selling off” government lands and auctioning liquor shops. The BRS government has increased the fares of state-run Road Transport Corporation (RTC) buses, land registration fees, residential property tax and others, Reddy charged.
“The situation in Telangana is such that the government cannot run without selling off its lands.
Government employees cannot be given salaries without selling off liquor shops, beer and brandy,” he claimed, while speaking to reporters here.
The state economy has gone bankrupt, Reddy, who is also a union minister, claimed, adding that lands that would be useful in the future are being “sold off unilaterally”.
He also alleged that “like nowhere else in the country,” liquor shops have been auctioned six months in advance to gather money for “temporary political needs”. “The ‘Kalvakuntla family’ (family of Chief Minister K Chandrasekhar Rao) is behaving in such a way that it is only interested in getting funds through permissions for liquor shops, without any regard for the health of the people,” he said. “It is like sucking the blood of Telangana people.” Taking exception to the criticism by the “Kalvakuntla family” and BRS leaders on the Centre reducing the price of LPG cylinders by Rs 200, he called out the BRS government for not having reduced the taxes on petrol though the Centre had slashed the price to provide relief to common people. As per PM Narendra Modi’s call, several state governments in the country gave relief by reducing the taxes imposed by them, he said, adding that BRS leaders “do not have the moral right” to talk about petroleum products and cooking gas.
BRS MLC K Kavitha, daughter of CM KCR, on Tuesday alleged that the Rs 200 cut in prices of domestic cooking gas announced by the Centre is not any gift to the people but “gaslighting of people’s emotions and pockets”. The petrol price in Telangana is highest in the country, Reddy claimed, and further charged that roads are also being “mortagaged” under the BRS regime.
The Outer Ring Road (ORR) in Hyderabad has been “mortagaged” for a period of 30 years for the purpose of “temporary needs”. Against the norms of Hyderabad Metropolitan Development
Authority (HMDA), those funds are being diverted, he said.
