K Jana Reddy says he won't respond to K T Rama Rao's cheap' comments
Hyderabad: The leader of the Opposition in the Assembly, Mr K. Jana Reddy, on Thursday took serious objection to IT minister K.T. Rama Rao’s outburst against him, in particular Mr Rao’s charge that he was leading a 40-member “team of thieves.” Mr Jana Reddy said he has decided not to respond to any “unsavoury and cheap” comments made by the minister in future. He asked if constructing a penthouse on a building built by someone else, could justify taking credit for the whole thing.
Addressing a media conference at the Congress Legislature Party Office here, Mr Jana Reddy, one of the senior most leaders in Telangana, refuted whatever was said about him by the IT minister. He said it was the Congress government which had identified the fluoride problem in many villages in Nalgonda district, much before the formation of the TRS party. He added that the Congress had sanctioned several schemes and released funds and some of them had been completed during the previous Congress regime. He also said that it was unbecoming of the IT minister to ridicule him without knowing the facts.
He gave an example of how the Congress governments have successfully brought about three different phases of Hyderabad Drinking Water schemes drawn from Nagarjunasagar Dam. He also said when another scheme of bringing Godavari waters to the city was conceived and launched by the Congress, that Mr Rama Rao only finished the works at the tail end and started taking credit as though the TRS government had done the whole thing.
“You have only built one penthouse on the building that was constructed by the Congress, so now how can you now claim that the entire building was constructed by you?” Mr Jana Reddy asked K.T. Rama Rao. Mr Jana Reddy accused the IT minister of speaking arrogantly and in an uncivilised manner and said it would belittle his position and seniority to say any more on the minister.
Mr Jana Reddy reminded that he never encouraged political defections by legislators, without them first giving up their membership in the Assembly. “Revanth Reddy joined us as TD is non-existent in Telangana State. If tomorrow the Congress comes to power, there will be no TRS existing in the state,” Mr Jana Reddy said. His parting shot: Minister K.T. Rama Rao thought if he spoke against big leaders, he would grow ‘big’.
