Farm debt waivers in 100 days was never a commitment made by Congress, according to Dy CM Mallu Bhatti Vikramarka

Mallu Bhatti Vikramarka, the deputy chief minister, said on Friday that the Congress never made a pledge to forgive agricultural debts within a year of taking government. On the other hand, Vikramarka said that the Congress administration was determined to waive agricultural debts.

During a press conference held here, the deputy chief minister refuted the assertions made by G Kishan Reddy, the state head of the BJP and Union Minister, claiming the Central government had given Telangana Rs 10 lakh crore. According to him, Telangana has been given Rs 3.7 lakh crore, to which it is legally entitled.

In response to a query regarding state finances, the deputy chief minister, who also serves as the Finance portfolio head, stated that former chief minister K Chandrasekhar Rao requested authorization from the Election Commission to provide Rs 7,000 crore to Rythu Bandhu during the Assembly elections, but the money was never made available. On the other hand, the state treasury was displaying a negative balance when Congress took over the administration. This Rs 7,000 crore, where had it gone? The public should hear KCR’s response to this, he remarked.

In response to a query about electricity, Vikramarka said that the state did not experience any blackouts. He said that a bogus story about power outages has been making the rounds on social media. Declaring that the state of Telangana needs a new energy strategy, Vikramarka pointed out that the government is now buying electricity for Rs 10 per unit, compared to Rs 20 under the BRS administration. According to him, the government is working on a system that can manage demand peaks of up to 30,000 MW.

Vikramarka blamed the former BRS administration for the state’s drought-like conditions, claiming that they only released water from the reservoirs to gain an election advantage. “The BRS administration released water from irrigation projects needlessly in order to gain an electoral advantage. In order to fulfill summer demand, water preservation should have been implemented in the Srisailam and Nagarjuna Sagar projects. However, they have behaved carelessly,” he said. In order to keep his word to the people, the deputy chief minister further said that he would visit the areas where he had gone on a padayatra before to the Assembly elections.