HYDERABAD: Thousands of party workers gathered at Raviryal village in Chevella Parliamentary constituency limits to attend the second ‘Dalit, Girijan Atma Gourava Dandora’ organised by the Telangana Pradesh Congress Committee (TPCC) on Wednesday.
Addressing the meeting, Congress leaders came down heavily on Chief Minister K. Chandrasekhar Rao for forcibly taking back assignment lands allotted to the Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes in the state and said merely Rs 2 to Rs 5 lakh per acre was being paid to the SC/STs and the same lands was sold to industrialists for crores of rupees. “Chandrashekar Rao is anti-Dalit and he has no respect for them,” they said. The Congress government provided assignment lands to SC/STs to a large extent, but the Telangana Rashtra Samiti (TRS) government was taking them back forcibly, they alleged.
Speaking on the occasion, Congress MLA Seethakka demanded that the Dalit Bandhu scheme be implemented across the state. “To get votes in the Huzurabad byelection, Chandrashekar Rao is playing a gimmick in this regard,” she said and demanded that minister K. T. Rama Rao declare how many government jobs were provided to the SC/STs in the last seven years.
Former minister Mohammad Ali Shabbir said Chandrashekar Rao gave a letter to the then UPA chairperson Sonia Gandhi stating that first Chief Minister post would be given to a Dalit, if statehood was accorded to Telangana. “KCR entered into the Guinness Book for cheating people on false election promises,” he said.
TPCC election committee chairman and former deputy Chief Minister C. Damodar Raja Narasimha said the Congress had introduced SC/ST sub-plan to allocate funds on population ratio.
AICC Adivasi wing vice president Bellaiah Naik said Chandrashekar Rao had taken back 1,500 acres of assignment lands from tribals in Rangareddy district alone. He demanded that a resolution be passed in the Assembly to implement Dalit Bandhu scheme across the state. “Why is the TRS government delaying to provide 12 percent reservations to the tribals?” he questioned.
Rangareddy district Congress committee president Challa Narasimha Reddy presided over the meeting. TPCC working presidents J. Geetha Reddy, B. Mahesh Kumar Goud, senior vice president Mallu Ravi, G. Chinna Reddy, Addanki Dayakar, Bellaiah Naik, former MLAs Malreddy Ranga Reddy, Vamshichand Reddy, former PCC president Ponnala Lakshmaiah, AICC official spokesperson Dasoju Sravan, M. Kodanda Reddy, Malreddy Ram Reddy, Mahila Congress president Sunita Rao and others were present.
Earlier, the Congress leaders and activists took out a huge rally from the Rajiv Gandhi International Airport at Shamshabad to the Dandora meeting venue at Raviryal. TPCC president A. Revanth Reddy and Telangana state Congress in-charge Manickam Tagore took part in the huge rally where party cadre gave them a rousing welcome.
