HYDERABAD: Amidst allegations that the ruling party is trying to conduct the Greater Hyderabad Municipal Corporation elections during the Sankranti vacation when a large number of Seemandhra people will leave the city for their native places, IT minister KTR has asserted that the elections will be held only after the people return from their native places.
“We will win with the votes of Seemandhra people only,” he has declared, exuding confidence that the people of Andhra region would also vote for the TRS seeing the development works of the government.
At a meeting held at Telangana Bhavan here on Thursday on the occasion of leaders of other parties from Uppal area joining the TRS, KTR made an attempt to woo the Seemandhra electorate living in Hyderabad and assured that they would not be differentiated in any of the government schemes.
“During the separate Telangana agitation, several Andhra leaders made false claims that people of Andhra would be forced to leave Hyderabad after formation of Telangana. Has such a thing happened? Has any single person of Andhra nativity been harmed in these 18 months?” he asked.
KTR reiterated that Telugu-speaking states would be divided geographically but people would remain united. People of both the regions benefited from the division of the state. “It was only because of the division that AP got prestigious institutes like IIM and AIIMS, new airports and seaports, and also the new capital of Amaravati. Such development would not have been possible in neighbouring state if erstwhile state was not bifurcated,” he said. Claiming that TRS launched various schemes like Kalyana Lakshmi and six-kilo rice for each member of a family, KTR wanted to know if there was one Seemandhra person who was denied the benefit of the schemes. “These schemes are for the poor irrespective of nativity,” he said.
TRS had Terrorised Seemandhras: Uttam
Meanwhile, at a press conference here, TPCC chief N Uttam Kumar Reddy said the TRS was making all-out efforts to woo ‘settlers’ ahead of GHMC elections. “The same TRS had insulted and terrorised people hailing from Andhra region earlier,” he alleged.
Listing out several remarks made by TRS leaders against ‘settlers’, Reddy said the TRS tried to deprive Andhra-origin students of fee reimbursement by introducing FAST in place of the earlier fee reimbursement scheme. “The TRS government had to withdraw FAST following court’s direction,” he said.
[Seemandhras here should remember as to who fought for their rights when the TRS govt tried to deprive Andhra-origin students of fee reimbursement.
N Uttam Kumar Reddy, TPCC chief