Hyderabad, March 18 Telangana Chief Minister A Revanth Reddy on Wednesday criticized former BRS supremo K Chandrasekhar Rao for not attending the Assembly for the past two years, saying that Rao has received over Rs 1 crore in salary and allowances from December 2023 until now as the Leader of the Opposition.
In a lengthy reply in the legislative assembly to the Motion of Thanks to the Governor's address on Wednesday night, Reddy criticized Rao for not attending the House during the Governor's address at the beginning of the current session.
Reddy further stated that the four crore people of Telangana hoped that Rao would attend the Assembly to formally offer his wishes to the new Governor during his address.
"The Leader of the Opposition has received Rs 1,06,56,674 as salary and allowances from December 1, 2023, to February 28, 2026. There is a need for a debate and decision regarding anyone who is continuously absent from their duties. I am not particularly mentioning any names," Revanth Reddy said.
He said a decision must be taken regarding the practice of drawing salaries and allowances without attending to official duties.
He further appealed to Rao to come to the House and offer his valuable suggestions during debates.
Reddy said that some people think they are kings and that the people made a mistake (by defeating them in elections), and they are mocking democratic values by "behaving like dictators".
Hitting out at the BRS for the loans taken by the state when the party was in power during 2014 to December, 2023, the chief minister said K Chadrasekhar Rao-led regime accumulated a debt of over Rs 8 lakh crore, including FRBM loans, government guaranteed loans and non-guaranteed loans.
His government, since it assumed office in December 2023, took loans to the tune of Rs 1.69 lakh crores, while it paid back 1.76 lakh crore towards the loans taken by the BRS regime, he said. It took the debt to Rs 3.47 lakh crore between December 1, 2023, and February 28, 2026.
Observing that the BRS government took loans at a high interest rate of 11.90 per cent, he said he got the debt restructured by pursuing the matter with the Centre.
He thanked Union Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman for helping the state, though she belonged to a different party.
Referring to BRS criticism against the drive launched by his government against encroachments, Reddy played the old videos of BRS president and former CM K Chandrasekhar Rao and the then Municipal Administration minister K T Rama Rao in which they supported the demolition of encroachments when the BRS was in power.