Kishan defends Central package, hits out at KCR
Union minister of state for home G. Kishan Reddy strongly refuted Chief Minister K. Chandrashekar Rao’s criticism of the Central government’s `20 lakh crore economic stimulus package.
On Tuesday the minister addressed the press through a video conference, and questioned how Telangana state had lost out on the financial package. He condemned the Chief Minister’s allegations that the Centre’s policy is against the federal spirit and said the package would provide an economic stimulus across the country.
He clarified that the One Nation-One Grid scheme has to be implementing as part of the reforms and demanded to know in what way the package was not useful to Telangana state. He claimed that the Narendra Modi government is adopting a variety of policies to bring investment to the country and said this was not the time to resort to vote bank politics.
He then criticised the state government’s schemes, saying the Rythu Bandhu scheme is not applicable to all farmers but only to those farmers who sow crops listed by the state government. “Did we oppose your policy on Rythu Bandhu,” he asked. “If what you have done is correct, how come what the Centre had done is wrong? This practice of two-facedness isn’t fair,” he said.
Mr Reddy said that eight crore farmers across the country have benefited under the Employment Guarantee Scheme and added that three crore pensions are being granted to old people and widows. The minister said that the Centre has also increased the FRBM limit from three to five per cent. He challenged the Chief Minister to point out any drawbacks in the changes made to FRBM.