Telangana Deputy Chief Minister Mallu Bhatti Vikramarka accused BRS president and former Chief Minister K. Chandrasekhar Rao of distorting facts and propagating false narratives about power sector in the State to cover up the previous BRS government’s “financial mismanagement” that pushed the power utilities in financial doldrums.
Addressing the media at Sanjeeva Reddy Bhavan in Khammam on Sunday, Mr. Vikramarka alleged that Mr. Chandrasekhar Rao’s speech at the BRS public meeting in Chevella on Saturday was a bundle of lies.
“It is unbecoming as the former Chief Minister to utter lies to mislead people on power supply position,” Mr Vikramarka criticised.
“I am ready for a debate on the three months of Congress’s “Praja Plana” and the 10-years of BRS’s rule,” he said.
Launching a counterattack, he said: “The financial mismanagement by the previous BRS regime made the revenue surplus Telangana a deficit State with a whopping debt burden of ₹7 lakh crore.”
The lopsided policies coupled with the greed for commissions of the persons at the helm in the previous BRS government ruined the power sector, he charged, alleging that the Yadadri Thermal Power Plant cost escalated from ₹25,000 crore to ₹35,000 crore posing a huge financial burden of ₹10,000 crore on the State exchequer.
He alleged that the previous BRS government indiscriminately borrowed thousands of crores in the name of Kaleshwaram and other irrigation projects without any tangible benefits to the farmers. The Congress government is striving to bring the State economy back on track in adhere to prudent financial management, he asserted, vowing to inquire and unravel the “irregularities and corrupt practices” that surfaced during the previous BRS government.
Earlier, the Deputy Chief Minister offered floral tributes to Dr B R Ambedkar on his 134th birth anniversary.
Speaking on the occasion, he said the Congress government is implementing the guarantees and other welfare schemes as part of Praja Palana by drawing inspiration from Dr Ambedkar’s ideals of social justice and equality.