[intro]Mallu Bhatti Vikramarka,Telangana PCC working president,is confident of winning Warangal Lok Sabha seat in ensuing byelection. He says Congress will take on the mighty TRS with corruption as main plank. An Alumnus of Hyderabad Central University, Bhatti is one of the promising leaders of Telangana. He spoke to T360 from Wardhannapet, where he was attending an election preparatory meeting yesterday.Warangal Lok Sabha bypoll is necessitated by the resignation of Kadiam Srihari, who replaced Rajaiah as deputy CM in KCR cabinet.[/intro]
Q. Do you have enough strength to take on mighty TRS, which is a ruling party, in Warangal LS by-election.
Bhatti : Congress has strongest base in Telangana. Losing election in2014 doesn’t mean end of the road. People believe that it was Congress which was responsible for Telangana state. While Congress was busy with impressing upon the high command, KCR used the mass movement for Telangana to produce a false impression that he was the leader of the movement. If you remember well, after 2012, he gave up the movement and asked people,” give 100 MLAs and 15 MPs, I will get Telangana.” Around this time, we were busy in convincing Party president Sonia and finally succeeded. He was in election campaign, while we worked behind the screens for the statehood. So, people saw KCR and his manipulative politics. Congress lagged behind.We are a force in Telangana. Warangal by-election will prove this.
Q. What do you want to tell people in Warangal, in the face KCR’s massive governmental programs?
Bhatti: We want to expose KCR establishment as an anti-people, corrupt and family rule in Telangana. The election was thurst on people because of his corruption and dictatorial attitude as well as his arrogance. What is the reason for the election? Earlier deputy chief minister T Rajaiah was removed on the pretext that he was corrupt. If Rajaiah was corrupt, where was the action against him? Why didn’t you book a case against him under prevention of corruption act? If CM was so serious about eradicating corruption, why didn’t you institute an inquiry into the charges of corruption against your daughter -MP Kavita, Son-minister K T Ramarao, another minister Jagadish Reddy. It’s all convenience. Something unpalatable happened between vocal Rajaiah and KR. He was removed and the election is thrust. You brought Kadiyam from Lok Sabha and made him MLC necessitating the election. Whose money you are spending on elections? We will place this before the people.
Q.what is your main plank for Warangal by-election?
Bhatti: Rampant corruption in the state government.
Q. Can you elaborate on the subject?
Bhatti: Telangana government has become a haven of corruption. He (KCR) is using irrigation sector as a conduit for his corruption. His modus operandi is to abandon the pending and on-going projects and plan new ones to award them to new contractors. New project is a lucrative decision. Look at the Pranahita-Chevella project. Centre assured it would take up the project as national project if there was no change in design . National project means centre bears 90 pc expenditure and state only 10 pc. The project was designed to give water to seven districts in the state as well as Greater Hyderabad. He doesn’t want this and changes the design, which would deny water to Rangareddy. In the name of getting water to Ranga Reddy he plans a new project, Rangareddy-palamuru with Rs 35,250 crore, which has no clearance from the centre. Also, it would benefit only three districts. Why take up a project which has no permission and abandon the one approved by the centre? There might have been some ulterior motive. We tell people about the corrupt motives of TRS government and its chief minister.
Q. What is the Congress stand on water-grid being taken up by TRS government?
Bhatti: It is not a water-grid but commision-grid. Telangana state government has taken up Telangana Water Grid on the pretext to resolve drinking water problem at a whopping cost Rs.25, 000 crore. It proposes to use 80 TMC water each from Godavari and Krishna rivers. It’s all fraud. The project was being taken up for his son and panchayati Raj minister KT Ramarao’s benefit. It’s another project meant to squander public money away.
