Hyderabad: TPCC president and MP N. Uttam Kumar Reddy criticised the President’s address to Parliament delivered on Thursday, for not mentioning rising unemployment, deteriorating conditions in government hospitals, or farmers’ suicides.
Mr Reddy said, “There was only disappointment for Telangana state.” There was no assurance that promises made to Telangana in the AP Reorganisation Act would be met, the TPCC president said.
He said that the state has not got its due share from the Centre in the last five years. “This time, too, the BJP government gave clear indications that honouring commitments to the state as per Reorganisation Act was not its priority. The President’s address did not touch upon crucial issues,” he said.
He said the President was full of praise for the BJP without naming it. Calling the period prior to 2014 as “uncertain” and “unstable” is factually wrong.
He said that the President welcomed the increase in the number of women MPs this time, but instead the government should have given a commitment to pass the Women’s Reservation Bill to provide 33 per cent reservation in legislative bodies.
He said that more than 1.5 lakh farmers are committing suicide in India every year, but there was no mention of how the government proposes to stop farmer suicides.
Mr Reddy said no road map or even outline was given on steps to be taken to double the income of farmers by 2022, and none of the promises made to farmers by the Modi government in its first tenure was honoured.
