Revanth sniffs ‘huge scam’ in free power sop to farmers

♦ Dares BRS leaders to debate on 24-hour power

♦ Demands BRS chief to contest from Gajwel

♦ More than 80 MLAs will lose if given tickets, says Revanth Reddy

Hyderabad: Telangana Pradesh Congress Committee (TPCC) chief A Revanth Reddy has accused the State government of corruption in the supply of free power to the farming sector and the construction of new thermal power projects.

Addressing a press conference in Hyderabad, he said that the State government was constructing two big thermal projects at a cost of over Rs 10,000 crore, despite warnings from the Centre. He also said that the Telangana government had agreed to install meters for agriculture pump sets in lieu of loans granted by the Rural Electrification Corporation (REC). He alleged that Rs 8,000 crore of the Rs 16,000 crore earmarked for free power every year was being misused by the ruling Bharat Rashtra Samithi (BRS) leadership. He demanded that the Chief Minister make public the details of the supply of free power to agriculture round the clock.

Revanth Reddy also said that the government was supplying power to farmers for not more than 8 hours, while some influential leaders in the government had made arrangements to get adequate power supply to their farms. He said that small and marginal farmers were at the receiving end.

The TPCC chief demanded an open debate on the supply of 24-hour power to the farming sector at any power substation in the State. He dared BRS leaders KT Rama Rao and T Harish Rao to decide the venue.

He also demanded that BRS president and Chief Minister K Chandrashekhar Rao announce that he will contest the next assembly elections from Gajwel assembly constituency, from where he was elected in 2018. He also demanded that all the sitting MLAs be re-nominated as the party candidates for the ensuing elections.

Reddy claimed that survey reports indicated that more than 80 sitting MLAs were facing the wrath of the people and would lose the next elections if they were given party tickets. He said that the BRS leadership should come forward and prove their ‘masculinity’ by announcing all sitting MLAs as the party candidates in the upcoming assembly elections. If they failed to do so, he said, the BRS leaders would be considered as ‘neither male nor female.’