Makthal/Hyderabad: Chief Minister A Revanth Reddy has appealed to voters to elect “competent leaders” as sarpanches for a comprehensive development of their villages. Besides, the Chief Minister warned people to stop supporting parties that are creating hurdles to the development of the state in the Gram Panchayat elections.

Addressing a public meeting in Makthal, after laying the foundation stone for various developmental works in the Assembly constituency, the Chief Minister said that the Palamuru district people blessed the Congress by electing 12 Congress MLAs, enabling him to be elected as the second Chief Minister of India’s youngest state.

Revanth Reddy blasted former chief minister K Chandrashekar Rao for ignoring the Palamuru district during the 10-year Bharat Rashtra Samithi rule in the state. “This land supported KCR during the Telangana movement and elected him as Lok Sabha member. After being elected as the chief minister, KCR did not give even Rs 12 crore for development. Palamuru projects were not completed and no steps were taken to complete the Kodangal–Narayanpet lift irrigation scheme”.

The Chief Minister took a broadside at KCR for the crushing debt burden of Rs 8 lakh crore on the state exchequer. Despite facing financial hurdles, the state government was moving forward by implementing all schemes and completing the developmental works, he underlined. “It is my responsibility to complete the Palamuru projects and provide irrigation water”, the Chief Minister declared.

Further, the Chief Minister said, the government is organising the TelanganaRising Global Summit to bring the state back on track and attract huge investments to the state. The summit will showcase Telangana’s potential before the world and help the state emerge as the best destination for investments in the country. “We will develop Telangana as a 1 trillion-dollar economy by 2034 and a 3 trillion-dollar economy by 2047,” he observed. Free travel for women in RTC buses, 200 units of free electricity to the poor, fine rice to all white ration card holders, waiver of farm loans, and relieving farmers from their debt burden were among the important programmes taken up by the government, Revanth Reddy said. The government spent Rs 1.04 lakh crore for farmers’ welfare in two years and is working for the economic empowerment of women. Caste Census was conducted for the benefit of the backward communities and Telangana was the first state in the country to go for the sub-categorization of SCs, he added.