HYDERABAD: TRS working president and Municipal Administration Minister KT Rama Rao has alleged that the Congress and the BJP have a tacit agreement to win municipal polls like they had in some segments in the Lok Sabha elections.
In a freewheeling talk with Express on Thursday, the TRS working president alleged that during the Lok Sabha polls, the Congress and the BJP had a secret pact in Gadwal, Jagtial, Nizamabad, Karimnagar, Vemulawada, Narayanpet and some other municipalities in Adilabad.
To prove his point, he said in the Assembly elections in 2018, the TRS candidate won with 60,000 majorities, whereas the Congress candidate got around 60,000 votes. But in the Lok Sabha elections held a few months later, the Congress candidate got only 10,000 votes and all the votes were transferred to the BJP candidate in a bid to defeat the TRS candidate. This time too, the two parties are doing it. “The collusion between the Congress and the BJP is evident,” said KTR.
Ahead of the municipal polls, the IT Minister spoke on a variety of issues, including the development of municipalities and his tour to Davos, where he would meet the industry giants during the World Economic Forum summit.
Speaking on decentralised development, he said, “We believe in a decentralised model of development. The separate Telangana is formed on its basis. The Greater Tokyo Authority has around 23 corporations as separate entities. That is the reason the urban local bodies in the State are increased from the earlier 68 to 141 now”.
He said the past Congress government failed to develop infrastructure in Nizampet, Manikonda, Puppalaguda and Narsingi. It neither merged them with the GHMC nor declared them as separate corporations. As a result, those areas remained gram panchayats and did not witness any development. The TRS government made Nizampet and others as separate corporations to trigger development.
As there are no elections in the next four years, the government would focus mainly on development, said KTR. Already, drinking water and power supply were stabilised in the State.
Mahbubnagar and Nizampet, which used to get drinking water once in 15 days, are now getting water once in two days. Bulk supply of water reached all the urban local bodies under Mission Bhagiratha. Just ten per cent of the work on Mission Bhagiratha has been pending. “Now, the focus is on achieving ODF in towns. Faecal sludge treatment plants will be constructed in all the towns with an estimated cost of Rs 50 crore.”
Elaborating on funds being released for development, he said Rs 339 crore was being released monthly to all the gram panchayats in the State. Also, all the civic bodies, including the GHMC, get Rs 216 crore every month. He said around 43 per cent of the State’s population is living in urban areas. In the next five to six years, the urban population would outnumber the rural population, which is why the focus is on creating additional infrastructure in urban areas. Already, 90 mini tank bunds like the one in Hyderabad are being developed in municipalities.
When asked about elections to the GHMC, he said there was no chance of holding pre-polls to the civic body. “The Elections will be held as per schedule. I am confident that people will support the TRS this time too,” he said. On the preparations for the ensuing municipal polls, KTR said all the party Ministers and MLAs would campaign, while Assembly segment in-charges, where TRS have no MLAs, would campaign in five municipalities in Munugode, Sangareddy and Manthani Assembly segments. “As each municipality/corporation has its own issues, no common manifesto has been released for the entire State. However, some common issues like garbage collection and disposal will be looked into by the government,” he said.
KTR said that TRS was the only party that fielded candidates in all the wards/divisions in the elections. He added that the Congress has no candidates for 400 wards and the BJP has no candidates for 700 wards. “Even if the BJP is ready to give B-forms, there are no takers for the same,” the Minister said.
When asked about Telangana’s presence at World Economic Forum at Davos, KTR said a Telangana pavilion would be set up at the summit.
Decentralised development
“We believe in the decentralised model of development. The separate Telangana is formed on its basis. The Grater Tokyo Authority has around 23 corporations, as separate entities. That is the reason the urban local bodies in the State are increased from the earlier 68 to 141 now.”
World Economic Forum, Davos
“During the WEF, I will interact with the industrialists. The main focus will be on electronics, textiles, food processing industry, life sciences and information technology. The call to foreign investors will be to look at Telangana State if they look at India.”