-State riches were being plundered away by rulers
-Telangana was achieved for betterment of people
-But KCR family was looting wealth in Telangana achieved after long people’s struggle
-Godavari waters will be diverted to agricultural lands: Bhatti

People continued to pour out their woes to Congress Legislature Party leader Bhatti Vikramarka who has taken up ‘People’s March’ padayatra over 40 days ago when he had an interaction with people of Lingampalli village of Chilpur mandal on Friday.

Toddy tappers Maturi Kiran, Theegala Giri met the Congress leader at the village Rachchabanda and said their traditional vocation was adversely impacted as the government introduced cheap liquor and allowed belt shops to thrive every where.

“Our lives and livelihood are dealt a deadly blow by this government. We are not able to earn enough to feed our families. Very soon all the toddy tappers will be forced to stop tapping the toddy. We are in a deep crisis and we also need insurance,” they represented to the CLP leader.

Matta Anjavva complained that no one was coming to their village to inquire about their well being and even if some came, nothing was being done for their village or people. “We are sustaining ourselves through physical labour. There is no guaranteed employment even for 100 days in a year. The wages were not being deposited in the bank account for the work done. How do we live,” she expressed her anguish.

After listening to the hardships of people, Bhatti Vikramarka said since he started his Padayatra in mid March, he had been interacting with Adivasis, tribals of Adilabad, workers of coal mines, students of Kakatiya university and people of Warangal and Hanumakonda districts. “ To the extent possible I am talking to people in every village. We hoped every one would get what they had wanted in Telangana State achieved after decades of struggle. But every where people lamented they got nothing and there was no end to their hardships,”.

Expressing his pain over the state of affairs, he said no drinking water nor irrigation facilities were provided in the State though it was one of the main planks for Telangana Statehood. The funds meant for development were being pocketed by big leaders in the government and land was not distributed to the poor. There was absolutely no change in the lives of poor. Telangana that was formed with surplus budget was now burdened with debts.

Two rivers flow across Telangana , State has rich resources yet why people were not seeing any transformation in their lives? People should ponder over this, he said. “We agitated for Statehood to free ourselves from Andhra leaders who were depriving Telangana region its due share of development. But after formation of Telangana, our own leaders were exploiting Telangana people and creating hurdles for development. There was no equitable distribution of resources nor recruitment was done to fill vacant government jobs.

Bhatti thundered that Telangan was achieved for the betterment of people and not to enable rulers to amass wealth at the cost of people’s aspirations. Students set themselves ablaze and sacrificed their lives with the hope that their sacrifice at least would transform the lives of Telangana people. “What we need desperately is people’s government and not a government led by a family and feudal lords. The State’s wealth was being eaten away by these corrupt rulers like bandicoots,” Bhatti said lashing out at the KCR government’s rule.
It is time for people to bring back pro-poor and pro-people Indiramma governance which was synonymous with development and welfare oriented governance and for constructing houses to every poor family without a pucca house.

Mr.Bhatti said on behalf of Congress Party that would stand by its every promise, he was giving his word that in the next Indiramma government, every poor family would be given Rs.5 lakh to construct a house. New ration cards would be issued and under the public distribution system , along with rice , nine commodities would be given in a bag to the cardholders. Apart from giving social security pension to old people and physically handicapped, the health insurance under Arogyasri would be increased to Rs.5 lakhs. For students, fee reimbursement scheme , cooking gas for Rs.500 would be extended. For farmers loan waiver upto Rs.2 lakh would be implemented at one go and under ‘Coolie Bandhu’ scheme, every rythu coolie, landless poor, and those who get work upto 100 days would be given Rs.12,000.

Further explaining about welfare schemes to be given by the Congress Party if it came to power, Mr.Bhatti said interest free loans would be given on a big scale to Dwcra women and as done by the Congress government in the combined State, paddy would be purchased by weighing it near the paddy stocks/mounds immediately through IKP centres, unemployment dole will be given to the unemployed, job calender will be published and recruitment test would be conducted in a foolproof manner without scope for question paper leakage, free and compulsory education would be provided from KG to PG and Godavari waters would be diverted to agricultural fields to bring hope back into the eyes of farmers.

Our ultimate goal is to achieve social development and enable people live with self respect and the Congress Party would strive to build such Telangana which people dreamed about, Mr.Bhatti said.