Bandi Sanjay questions disparity in funds for Bonalu and Ramzan

metro india news I hyderabad

Union Minister Bandi Sanjay Kumar has questioned the Telangana government's alleged disparity in allocating funds for religious festivals, asking why Rs 33 crore was released for Ramzan while only Rs 5.50 lakh was allocated for the historic Lal Darwaza Bonalu celebrations. He made the remarks on Sunday while participating in Bonalu celebrations at the Nallapochamma and Lal Darwaza Sri Simhavahini Ammavari temples in Saidabad in Hyderabad's Old City.

Sanjay alleged that the Congress and Bharat Rashtra Samithi (BRS) were afraid of the Hindu community. Sanjay took a dig at BRS working president K.T. Rama Rao, recalling that KTR had mocked him when he visited the Bhagyalakshmi temple in the Old City during the Greater Hyderabad Municipal Corporation elections. He said KTR had now visited the temple and sarcastically remarked that even a person like KTR had received "enlightenment" through the power of Bhagyalakshmi Ammavari.

Sanjay questioned whether Rs 5.50 lakh would be sufficient for the Lal Darwaza Bonalu celebrations, which he said attract around one lakh devotees.  Sanjay claimed that Hindus were the ones paying taxes in the Old City and questioned why they should not receive funds for their religious institutions. Sanjay said that if the BJP comes to power in Telangana, Bonalu celebrations in the Old City would be organized on a grand scale with all necessary facilities for devotees. He promised that the government would allocate substantial funds for the festivities and said the Bhagyalakshmi temple would be developed on the lines of the Golden Temple.

'Unemployment is widespread in Telangana'

Sanjay also criticized the state government over unemployment, saying the large number of candidates who turned up for just 150 posts in the Hyderabad Disaster Response and Asset Protection Agency (HYDRA) recruitment was evidence of the crisis. He asked what had happened to the government's promises of filling two lakh jobs in a year and providing an unemployment allowance of Rs 4,000. He credited Prime Minister Narendra Modi's government with providing 12 lakh employment opportunities through Rozgar Melas.

Sanjay further alleged that the state government was depriving poor students of higher education by failing to clear fee-reimbursement dues. He questioned how many women had actually received the promised Rs 2,500 a month under the Mahalakshmi scheme. He also accused the government of failing to honour its promise to increase old-age pensions to Rs 4,000 and asked why applications were not being accepted from eligible senior citizens seeking pensions.