Rambabu castigates TDP Govt. for its extravaganza

Hyderabad, Sept 28, 2014: Taking strong objection to the extravaganza of the TDP government at a time when it is falling short of funds for welfare schemes, YSR Congress has questioned the foreign trip of Speaker Kodela Siva Prasada Rao to various countries.

“He is slated to visit the African nation of Cameroon for the Commonwealth Countries’ Parliamentary Conference but has included in his tour many other nations in the name of study tour causing loss to the exchequer,” Party spokesperson Ambati Rambabu told reporters here on Sunday.

As the Presiding Officer, he is supposed to visit the Cameroon Conference salted for next month but he has programmed pre and post conference tours to Mauritius, Kenya and South Africa for reasons beyond any reasonable comprehension as the countries do not have a vibrant democracy which matches that of ours.

“The state is facing financial crunch and the efforts to build a new capital has become a Herculean task and the Government has been lavishly spending on ministers in the form of allowances, perks, tours and renovations,” he said.

The countries our Speaker intends to visit have little history of parliamentary democracy and his tour is raising doubts and this unwarranted trip should be curtailed.

This apart, the Speaker was sanctioned Rs 28 lakhs for a new car without giving any account of the vehicle of the previous Speaker and the Finance Minister was sanctioned a sum of Rs 80 lakhs of which Rs 4 lakh was spent to buy a Television which shows the scale of extravaganza the State is involved in.

Chief Minister, who has set up a hundi at his chamber to collect money for building new capital, has spent a fortune to renovate his temporary chamber.

“All this is tax payer’s money and should be accounted for. We demand that the State should be observe austerity measures as it has been scaling down welfare schemes on the pretext of lack of funds. The Speaker should confine to the actual programme and leave out his tour of other countries, he said.