At a time when the Telangana is reeling under severe drought and farmers are committing suicides, Telangana Chief Minister K Chandrasekhara Rao's trip to China next week in a private executive jet by spending Rs 2 crore raised many an eyebrow.
A 50-seater Bombardier CRJ-100 aircraft has been hired for Mr Rao, popularly known as KCR, who is visiting China and other countries between September 8 and 16, with about a dozen people. He is to attend the World Economic Forum in Dalian.
In July, the state government spent Rs. 5 crore for a Mercedes-Benz bus to take KCR across Telangana. The vehicle can accommodate about a dozen people and has steps to the roof to allow the Chief Minister to occasionally wave to the public.
TPCC chief official spokesperson Dasoju Sravan Kumar asked the Chief Minister how he could go on entertaining tours with the public money.
He also alleged that the Chief Minister’s tour to China was not an official tour but it looks like a self-tour.
He said the Chief Minister supposed to spend public money cautiously because the Telangana State was formed with the sweat and blood of the people.
Sravan alleged that the State government, which evaded paying mess charges, fees reimbursement and hostel scholarships in the universities, was trying to spend lakhs of rupees on luxury tours.
“Is it not an anti-people act”, he asked. Sravan demanded that the government think twice before releasing funds for hiring private aeroplane to China.
Telangana Bachao Mission convener Nagam Janardhan Reddy also said the situation of drought is so severe in theTelangana state that he did not see this kind of situation earlier.
When the State was facing severe drought situation, KCR was leaving for China by spending crores. Instead, he should visit drought-affected areas, Nagam advised.
