Congress MLC and former Minister T. Jeevan Reddy questioned Minister Koppula Eashwar’s criticism of the Congress SC and ST Declaration and asked if he had the gumption to question Chief Minister K.Chandrasekhar Rao on the number of houses built for the Scheduled Castes by the BRS government.
At a press conference here, he wondered why the Minister is so silent when the BRS government had snatched away the assigned lands from Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes that are being sold to corporate companies at a premium rate. Let the Minister break his silence and question the government on deceiving the Dalits rather than pointing fingers at the Congress, he said.
Mr.Reddy challenged Mr.Eashwar to convince the Chief Minister to seek votes only in the villages where they had constructed double-bedroom houses while the Congress would seek votes in the villages where it had constructed Indiramma houses.
The Congress MLC asked why the Minister was so worried if the Congress had announced new welfare schemes for Dalits. He said it was Congress that allotted lands to Dalits while the BRS only cheated them, by promising three acres to every family. The government is boasting about Dalit Bandhu scheme, he said and asked how many people had benefited from the scheme and how many of those were deserving. “It is Mr. Eashwar’s failure to provide benefits to Dalits.”
He asked the Minister to answer on what basis Dalit Bandhu beneficiaries were being selected. So far, there are no guidelines and the government is silent,he said and demanded that the government relpease a white paper on the number of Dalits, BCs and minorities who were given houses and other benefits in the ast three years.
Mr. Reddy said the Chief Minister was trying to create an impression that he was working for the people in the election year after working for the benefit of his family for the past four years.
