Telangana: Congress is bringing economy back, says Bhatti
Hyderabad: Deputy Chief Minister Mallu Bhatti Vikramarka stated that the government had steered the state economy back on track, ensuring that employee salaries were paid on the first of every month, a sharp contrast to the BRS government’s ten-year rule, where employees used to receive salaries from 15th of every month.
Speaking to the media after issuing job letters, including 20 southern discom employees and 92 junior assistants and computer operators at the northern discom, Bhatti, who holds the power portfolio, accused BRS leaders of making baseless allegations to defame the Congress government.
He highlighted that the Congress government had already completed 56,000 government recruitments within a year of coming to power.
He also pointed out that the BRS government had scrapped the Aarogyasri scheme introduced by the Congress government in unified Andhra Pradesh. However, after assuming office in 2023, the Congress government raised the Aarogyasri coverage from Rs 5 lakh to Rs 10 lakh.
The Congress also launched free bus travel for women under its six guarantees. He challenged BRS leaders to verify the implementation of the scheme by boarding women members onto RTC buses.
Bhatti claimed that Rs 22,000 crore had been disbursed for the waiver of farm loans up to 2 lakh, and Rs 8,400 crore would be deposited to eligible farmers under the Rythu Bharosa scheme on Republic Day. Additionally, landless farm laborers would receive benefits on the same day. The Congress government also increased diet charges for hostel students by 40 per cent and cosmetic charges by 200 per cent, addressing the neglect of the BRS government, which had failed to raise diet charges for a decade.
Bhatti emphasised the Congress government’s commitment to avoiding luxurious spending. He noted that Chief Minister Revanth Reddy and IT minister D. Sridhar Babu had attracted Rs 46,000 crore investment during last year's Davos visit and are targeting Rs 1 lakh crore investment from the current visit.
Predicting a significant rise in power demand, Bhatti said the government had already initiated measures to meet a projected 22,488 MW power demand in 2029-30 and 31,809 MW in 2034-35.
The state had already reached a peak power demand of 15,623 MW on March 8 last year. While the BRS government had ignored a new energy policy for 10 years, the Congress government introduced a clean and green energy policy aiming to generate 40,000 MW of green energy by 2035.
He also informed that the Congress government had reimbursed Rs 8,729 crore to power utilities for free power to agriculture pump sets and Rs 148.5 crore every month under the Gruha Jyothi scheme. So far, power utilities have received Rs 1,485 crore under this scheme.
