Telangana Rashtra Samithi (TRS) leader and MLC K. Kavitha has hit back strongly at the Centre’s remarks made against freebies to the poor and said welfare schemes for poor people are not freebies but writing off huge loans taken by corporates are actual freebies.
She stated that that there were about 250 welfare schemes for the poor being implemented by the TRS government in Telangana. They were launched as a responsibility of the State government towards the poor, she said in a statement issued on Tuesday.
Stating that there was a trend across the country terming welfare schemes as “freebies”, Ms. Kavitha said that the Centre had started exerting pressure on the State governments to stop such schemes.
“We are against this attitude. The welfare of poor people is the primary responsibility of any government. I believe that a freebie is what the BJP government at the Centre has done in the recent years — writing off ₹10 lakh crore debt of corporate companies, dupe agencies and industrial houses,” she said.
The welfare of weaker sections could never be a freebie, but it was the social responsibility of the elected governments, the TRS leader said and requested the intelligentsia to rise to the occasion and oppose the voice that was being generated against the welfare of the poor.
She noted that India was a diverse country with people from all backgrounds. It was the responsibility of the elected governments to help the weaker sections to break the cycle of poverty and brig them on the path of progress. Several State governments were working in that direction and the Centre was not expected to create any hurdles in such work, she felt.
