Leaving problems of people to winds, Ministers going on political tours: Harish Rao

HYDERABAD

Senior leader of the Bharat Rashtra Samithi (BRS) T. Harish Rao has observed that Ministers were busy in touring other States on political visits when the procurement of paddy and cotton is going on at a snail’s pace and the incidents of food poisoning in residential schools are going on unabated.

In a statement, Mr. Harish Rao said on Saturday that the Chief Minister and Ministers were busy in the election campaign in other States when there were a host of problems troubling farmers, students and other sections in the State. The paddy and cotton farmers were not getting support price and were forced to dispose of their produce in distress sales. On the other hand, there were incidents of some sarpanches, whose term was over, recently being forced to mortgage the gram panchayat buildings they constructed by borrowing money from lenders as the government was not clearing the bills even for completed works, he noted.

He reminded the ruling party how it had made a bouquet of promises in the name of ‘Abhaya Hastham’ manifesto to local bodies before the Assembly elections, wherein it had promised to enhance the honorarium paid to sarpanches, MPTC and ZPTC members. The fact, however, was that there were pending dues of honorarium to sarpanches and others.