Telangana State Bharatiya Janata Party president and Karimnagar MP Bandi Sanjay Kumar is a man on a mission. Despite the sweltering heat, and shrugging away dehydration and related health issues, he has been on his second ‘Praja Sangrama Yatra’ covering Mahabubnagar area. On the 21st day, he explains his objective in this exclusive interview:
Why are you carrying out a ‘padayatra’ now and any particular reason for choosing this route?
This erstwhile district was adopted by Chief Minister K. Chandrasekhar Rao but has seen little progress – there is no water, no employment, farmers are in distress, migration is rampant and schools are defunct with deficit infrastructure while health facilities are virtually non-existent. I want to highlight this monumental neglect of the Congress then and Telangana Rastra Samithi (TRS) now and also show our presence here.
What has been the response from the people to your walkathon?
Overwhelming! This time we chose interior areas away from the main roads and could witness dire poverty everywhere. There is a perceptible anger among the people about the broken promises on providing irrigation water, two-bedroom houses, jobs, denying daily wages under the rural employment guarantee scheme and so on. The development and welfare oriented administration of the Modi Government is finding resonance here.
What is the most important issue on people’s mind?
Even a seventh class student here will tell you here that Mahabubnagar needs lift irrigation project under GO 69 proposed at just ₹1,100 crore but the KCR government had redesigned it as ‘Palamuru-Rangareddy project’ escalating the cost to ₹ 70,000 crore but not even 10% was built. We are the only party seeking original project to be constructed.
What do you think of Congress leader Rahul Gandhi’s visit to Osmania University?
He has to first apologise to the students and the Telangana people as 1,400 youth had sacrificed their lives because of the Congress Party dithering over announcing the separate state to suit its own political ends.
You are continuing the ‘padayatra’ despite doctors’ advice to give a break...
The aim is to complete the programme on May 14 at any cost and the cadre have been taking care of me, with the people’s support giving me the necessary enthusiasm. We are looking forward to BJP national president J.P. Nadda participating in the public meeting tomorrow as he could not come in the first phase last year.
