HYDERABAD: In light of the national award for the state government’s flagship project Mission Bhagiratha, finance minister T. Harish Rao on Thursday demanded that the Centre release funds to assist states such as Telangana that are performing well. He also accused the Union government of having a dual nature by recognising the state government’s projects on the one hand and its leaders criticising the same projects on the other.
Mission Bhagiratha had won the national award from the Jal Jeevan Mission for providing safe drinking water to all rural households on Wednesday.
Harish Rao thanked the people for their faith in Chief Minister K. Chandrashekar Rao and his vision to improve lives and develop the state. Harish Rao, who spoke alongside panchayat raj minister Errabelli Dayakar Rao at a press conference on Thursday, said the national award for Mission Bhagiratha demonstrated the Chief Minister’s vision of providing long-term solutions to problems rather than short-term fixes.
The finance minister said that the Niti Aayog had recommended granting Rs. 19,000 crore to Telangana for Mission Bhagiratha, but the Centre had failed to honour the recommendations. “Instead of merely criticising the state, even after the Centre, the Niti Aayog, and their own colleagues praised Telangana in Parliament for our schemes and programmes, they should ensure that funds promised to the state by the Niti Aayog and the 15th Finance Commission are released,” he demanded of local BJP leaders.
“Perhaps the people of Telangana may look at you a bit kindly if you can secure the Rs. 19,000 crore grant recommended by the Niti Aayog for the state. The people of this state are intelligent, and they understand how the TRS government led by Chandrashekar Rao has ensured the state’s development and welfare,” he said, referring to the BJP leaders.
Telangana got the award for Mission Bhagiratha for exemplary performance in ‘quantity, quality, and regularity’ of drinking water supply, demonstrating that the programme is consistently delivering on its promise of providing safe drinking water to every household, he remarked. While Mission Bhagiratha covers all 23,890 habitations in the state, he claimed that the Centre had only reached about half of all households in terms of safe drinking water supply.
BJP ministers from the Centre who were visiting Telangana should learn from the initiatives of the Chief Minister and the TRS government. The Centre has already copied a few, including Mission Bhagiratha, which was adopted as the ‘Har Ghar Jal scheme’ under the Jal Jeevan Mission, and Rythu Bandhu as PM Kisan Yojana, he said.
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