Revanth dismisses BRS claims on not installing meters on agriculture connections  

Debate in Legislative Assembly between Chief Minister and BRS legislator over loans and installation of meters in agriculture connections.

The Legislative Assembly witnessed a debate between Chief Minister A. Revanth Reddy and BRS legislator T. Harish Rao regarding the main Opposition’s claims on not budging to the Central Government’s offer for enhancing the quantum of loans to the State relaxing FRBM norms provided the State is prepared to instal meters to agriculture connections.

Mr. Harish Rao who initiated the general discussion on the budget explained in detail about the loans raised by the previous Government and said the State had rejected the Centre’s offer for more loans if meters were installed for pumpsets. “The State could have availed ₹30,000 crore if meters were installed. But former Chief Minister K. Chandrasekhar Rao rejected the offer as the Government was against installing meters to agricultural connections,” he said.

The Chief Minister who intervened at this point said his Government had liberally given time to opposition to air their views on the budget as it was ready to accept constructive suggestions which could be incorporated. But Mr. Harish Rao was speaking lies in respect of installation of electricity meters, he charged.

Displaying the tripartite agreement signed between the Central Government, the State and the power distribution companies in January 2017, he said the State assured the Union Government that it would fix meters to distribution transformers and feeders in a time bound manner. The agreement also stipulated installation of smart meters to domestic connections consuming upto 500 units by December 2018 and upto 200 units by December next year.

“The BRS Government gave its commitment to instal meters to distribution transformers and feeders to the Centre and implemented it. But the party leaders are speaking lies to cover up their failures,” he said.

Thie Chief Minister also took strong objections to the BRS’ claims of creating assets utilising the borrowed amounts and recalled how the previous Government handed over outer ring road at throwaway rates to private parties. The BRS rule was full of irregularities as could be seen from the reports emerging in respect of sheep and goat distribution, bathukamma sarees and indiscriminate sale of lands.

“What injustice did Mahbubnagar district do to the BRS. It has ensured that BRS president K. Chandrasekhar Rao win as MP from the Mahbubnagar Lok Sabha seat. “Is it not his responsibility to complete pending projects including the Palamuru-Rangareddy lift irrigation scheme? All the projects in the district remained incomplete even after the previous Government spent close to Rs. 20 lakh crore during its ten year tenure. The Rangareddy district which fetched huge revenues in the form of land sales too was denied of its due,” he said.