Governor's address was factually incorrect, misleading: Uttam Kumar Reddy

Hyderabad: Congress MP & former TPCC President Capt. N. Uttam Kumar Reddy described the address by Governor Dr Tamilisai Soundararajan to Telangana Legislature on Friday as factually incorrect and misleading.

"The Governor's address did not touch upon any problem being faced by the common people including the financial crisis, rising inflation, unemployment, agrarian crisis, neglect of education and health sectors, deteriorating Law & Order situation and other issues," Uttam Kumar Reddy said in a media statement today.

Uttam Kumar Reddy said that the Governor should've made necessary amendments to the speech copy provided to her by the BRS Govt. However, the Governor did not question or verify the statistics mentioned in her speech and delivered a misleading speech before the Telangana legislature.

He disputes the claim that Telangana's revenue increased to Rs. 1.84 lakh crore. "The Comptroller & Auditor General of India and also the 15th Finance Commission has pointed out that Telangana Govt was showing inflated figures of growth by counting debts and loans as revenues. Therefore, the claims on revenue receipts are factually incorrect. Further, the claim of Per Capita Income reaching Rs. 3,17,115 is also incorrect. According to the first multi-dimensional poverty index (MPI) released by NITI Aayog, about 13.74% of the population in Telangana is multi-dimensionally poor. Further, as many as 44.54 lakh people are surviving on a monthly Aasara pension of Rs. 2,000 which amounts to Rs. 12,000 per annum. In this scenario, how could the Per Capita Growth could cross Rs. 3 Lakh? he asked.

Uttam Kumar Reddy said that the Governor's address was completely silent on the rising debts and crashing economy of Telangana. Chief Minister K. Chandrashekhar Rao might give several justifications for borrowing huge loans. But in reality, today Telangana is in debt of over Rs. 5 lakh crore which must be repaid with huge interest.

Further, the claims in the Governor's address on recruitment are not substantiated with facts. The BRS Govt is making claims of filling up 1,41,735 vacancies through direct recruitment while intending to fill another 80,039 posts. He pointed out that as per the report of the C.R. Biswal-headed Pay Revision Commission (PRC), as against the sanctioned post of 491,304 in different departments, there are only 300,178 employees. It means that the government needs to fill 191,126 posts and not just 80,039.

Further, the Congress MP said that the Governor's address had no mention of the rising unemployment in Telangana. He said more than 40 lakh people in Telangana are jobless which includes nearly 25 lakh qualified youth who registered themselves with the State Public Service Commission. He said no assurances have been given on providing a job or at least the promised Unemployment Allowance of Rs. 3,016 to the jobless youth.

Uttam Kumar Reddy said that the Governor completely skipped the mention of KCR Govt's flagship double bedroom scheme. He said 2 BHK units were promised to 2.76 lakh families. However, not even 20,000 of the promised units were delivered to the intended beneficiaries in the last eight years. He said near as per the Intensive Household Survey conducted by the BRS Govt itself, nearly 22 lakh families in Telangana do not own a house. However, the BRS Govt has no solution to address this problem.

The Congress leader said that the Governor's address did not elaborate on the Dalit Bandhu scheme and no deadline was mentioned for providing Rs. 10 lakh assistance to all 17 lakh poor Dalit families. Shockingly, there is no mention of Girijan Bandhu which was launched during the Munugode by-elections.

Uttam Kumar Reddy said that the Governor's address, as expected, was purely customary and read like an election pamphlet of the BRS party.