Telangana local body elections: Congress MLAs, leaders apprehensive over visiting villages

Failure to fulfil electoral promises made to the people cause of worry for the ruling party leaders

HYDERABAD: With speculations rife over the State government’s plans to conduct local body elections in June or July, Congress MLAs and leaders are getting anxious over visiting villages and conducting campaigns, with the government’s failure to fulfil electoral promises made to the people making them apprehensive of the public’s reaction. Partial implementation of three out of the four welfare schemes that were launched on January 26 is another cause of worry for the MLAs and leaders at mandal and village levels.

The Congress government had formally launched Rythu Bharosa, Indira Atmeeya Bharosa and Indiramma Houses on the Republic Day. It was announced that distribution of ration cards would also begin on the same day but the scheme is yet to take off. The government had selected one village in each mandal to implement these schemes on saturation mode. However, many farmers and farm labourers are complaining that they are yet to receive the benefits as promised by the Congress government.

At the Rythu Mahotsavam programme at Nizamabad on April 21, Agriculture Minister Thummala Nageswara Rao admitted the delay in release of Rythu Bharosa assistance. He even tendered an apology to the farmers and assured that the assistance would be deposited in their bank accounts shortly. Likewise, Nizamabad Rural MLA Bhupathi Reddy said crop loans of several farmers were yet to be waived. Despite their loans being under the Rs 2 lakh ceiling, many farmers were running from pillar to post to get their loans waived, he had said.

On the other hand, Indiramma Indlu applicants are up in arms against the government and alleging that priority was being accorded to Congress workers in the sanctioning of houses. There was also a delay in release of funds for the few eligible beneficiaries, citing different reasons.

At the Congress Legislative Party meeting on April 15, Chief Minister A Revanth Reddy had instructed the MLAs, public representatives and leaders to visit villages and conduct grassroot level outreach programmes.

However, not many leaders have responded positively to the Chief Minister’s instructions. Already, a few MLAs and leaders are learnt to have expressed their concerns with the State leadership in private while a few have openly shared their views at different occasions.

Last week at the Telangana Panchayat Secretaries Federation programme in the city, Munugode MLA Komatireddy Rajgopal Reddy exposed the challenging situations in panchayats. He openly informed Panchayat Raj and Rural Development Minister D Anasuya that Panchayat Secretaries were pledging gold and ‘mangalsutras’ of their wives to execute different works in their panchayats due to delay in clearing bills.

42 per cent reservations to BCs

The biggest worrying factor for Congress leaders is how to convince the people about extending 42 per cent reservations to Backward Classes communities. Though the Congress government had conducted a caste survey, there is uncertainty over its validity. The Chief Minister had explained that as the union government had decided to conduct caste enumeration in the census, it would prevail over the State government’s caste survey.

Given this situation, answering the public’s questions would be a tough task for Congress leaders, which explains their reluctance to follow the Chief Minister’s instructions.