One-family rule in Telangana: Rahul Gandhi

Targeting Telangana Chief Minister K. Chandrasekhar Rao, Congress President Rahul Gandhi on Monday alleged that there is a one-family rule and rampant corruption in the state.

Addressing members of the women self-help groups (SHGs) on the first day of his two-day visit to Hyderabad, the Congress leader claimed that only one family was getting all the benefits in the state, in an obvious reference to the family of the Chief Minister, whose son and nephew are Cabinet Ministers and a daughter an MP.

"Today, in Telangana, there is one-family rule. Entire benefit is going to one family. Lands are snatched from farmers, women SHGs are not helped, farmers are not being assisted and there is corruption. The situation is same here and in Delhi," he said targeting both the TRS and BJP-led NDA governments.

Rahul said both Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Chief Minister Chandrasekhar Rao made promises but didn't fulfil them.

He referred to Modi's promise of Rs 15 lakh deposits in the bank accounts of every citizen when black money stashed abroad is brought back to India and two crore jobs to the youth every year.

"We don't make false promises like them. We do what we promise," he told a large number of women gathered from across the state.

Rahul Gandhi began his visit amid a buzz about the Telangana Rashtra Samithi (TRS) planning to advance the Assembly elections. Polls to the Assembly and the Lok Sabha are scheduled for May next year.

The Congress President said that the Karnataka government, in which his party was a partner, had waived farmers' loans totalling Rs 30,000 crore as promised during the Assembly elections in that state.

Lauding the SHG movement in Telangana and Andhra Pradesh, he recalled that they helped in setting up the SHGs in Amethi and Rai Bareli constituencies in Uttar Pradesh.

He claimed that officials had told him that SHGs can't be run in Uttar Pradesh but the SHGs from then undivided Andhra Pradesh taught how to form the groups. Today there are 15 lakh women in SHGs in Uttar Pradesh, he added.

--IANS

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