HYDERABAD: On the day he kept another vow of offering a gift to the gods, chief minister K Chandrasekhar Rao launched a staunch defence against the uproar over his offerings made at various temples.
It may be recalled that KCR had promised to offer gifts to temples and other religious establishments during the agitation for a separate Telangana state. However, he has been under fire from several quarters including political ones, for keeping his vows and gifting gold ornaments worth more than Rs 5 crore at temples in Tirumala and Tirupati. On Thursday, coinciding with the occasion of Mahashivaratri, the chief minister visited the Lord Veerabhadraswamy temple at Kuravi in Mahbubabad district and presented a golden moustache to the deity. The 20.28gm golden `kora meesam’ (moustache upturned at its tips)’ cost the government Rs 62,908.
Later, speaking to reporters at the residence of TRS MLA from Dornakal constituency DS Redya Naik at Uggampally village, the chief minister called those criticising his keeping vows `sannasulu’ (useless persons). “Those who are criticising should pause before they speak. People cannot say anything they want just because they can. It pains me that some useless persons are politicising the vows I took. I am happy that today , on the occasion of Mahashivaratri, I managed to keep one of them by presenting agolden moustache to Lord Veerabhadraswamy ,” the chief minister said. He also announced that the government will release `5 crore for the development of the Kuravi temple. He also said that `1 crore will be released for development of Marripeda and Dornakal mandal headquarters and promised that temporary arrangements will be made to supply drinking water to Dornakal constituency from the Bhakta Ramadasu irrigation project.
Chandrashekhar Rao also criticised opposition parties accusing them of creating deliberate hurdles to prevent the government from taking up and completing development programmes.