NIRMAL: Chief Minister K Chandrasekhar Rao on Sunday came down heavily on Prime Minister Narendra Modi for dividing the nation on communal lines with an intent to reap the political benefit in the ensuing general elections.

The Chief Minister, addressing an election rally here, said that for the nation to move forward, it should get rid of those who pit one community against the other as communal strife always impeded the growth of a nation.

"Whenever elections arrive, the BJP brings to the fore issues relating to Pakistan, Muslims and Hindutva. Even the Prime Minister talks about Hindus and Muslims. Why should he do that? Why is he inflaming passions? A leader should promote harmony and not discord? We are living happily and why should someone tell us to be true Hindus. We are all following our respective faiths and yet we are living together happily," Chandrasekhar Rao pointed out.

FOLLOW OUR ELECTION COVERAGE HERE

The Chief Minister said that time has come for him to set the agenda for the nation. "The present-day politics should change. I want to provide a direction with the nation needs," he said and pointed out that the quintessence of the concept of Federal Front was to promote harmony among all communities. "The Federal Front would be a secular formation in the true sense of the term where all religions and castes get the respect they deserve. If the TRS gets all the 16 seats in Telangana, I would be able to work in that direction with renewed vigour," Rao said. 

He pointed out that one of the major factors that had impeded the country's growth for decades has been its inability to get out of religious and community politics. "In China, a committee constituted by the government to study possible economic threat from India, had advised it that one should not worry as, despite the fact that India has 130 crore population, it would never be able to rise above religious and communal conflicts,"  Rao said and pointed out that the rulers who had been at the helm till now are responsible for this mess.

"The leaders do not know how to tap natural resources or make use of the installed capacity of the power stations. We have an installed capacity of 3.44 lakh megawatts but we are using only 2.20 lakh megawatts," he said.

He described BJP as a shameless party for seeking votes now after going back on its promises made to the people in 2014. The party had promised 10 crore jobs but it did not provide even for one crore jobs. On the promise of flushing out black money, the party had promised `15 lakh to each individual but it had not paid even `15.

Though he had asked for setting up turmeric board in Nizamabad, the Centre had not done it so far but now the BJP leaders are saying that if they elect them, they would get the turmeric board in three days, Rao said

The Chief Minister said that he was happy to announce that Telangana stood first in the country in per capita power consumption. About five years ago, the farmers of  Telangana were going through an agonising ordeal with erratic or lack of power supply. "The power problems are behind us now," he said.
The chief minister pointed out that Adilabad is for Telangana what Kashmir is for the country. In Nirmal and Mudhole areas, 50,000 acres of land would soon get irrigation facility from Sriram Sagar Project (SRSP) which gets water supply from Kaleswaram.