Telangana Rashtra Samiti president K. Chandrasekhar Rao has rather controversially accused the people of the Seemandhra region of evading taxes. Paying handsome tributes to the late Prof. Jayashanker on the occasion of his jayanti at the Telangana Bhavan on Monday, Mr Chandrasekhar Rao said that economic experts like himself, Prof. Hanumantha Rao, B.P.R. Vittal and others, who collaborated for a study, had found that 10 Telangana districts with a population of three crore people generated 72 per cent of the revenues of the state, while 13 Seemandhra districts with a 5.5 crore population contributed only 28 per cent of the revenue to the state exchequer.
“I was surprised. I had asked Prof. Jayashankar to thoroughly check the revenue figures again. They came out the same. Even if we remove Hyderabad, the revenue from nine Telangana districts is more than the 13 Seemandhra districts,” Mr Chandrasekhar Rao claimed. The main reason for such a vast difference in tax collection is that most people in Andhra region evade taxes, he continued.
KCR’s potshots at cultural hegemony
Accusing the people of the Seemandhra region of evading taxes, TRS president K. Chadrasekhar Rao said, “Don't they use brush, soaps etc., for which one has to pay sales tax (VAT)? People from the Telangana region pay taxes honestly and are more law-abiding. The state is surviving on taxes paid by Telangana people,” Mr Chandrasekhar Rao averred.
The TRS leader also dismissed the Justice Srikrishna Committee report which stated that 40 lakh people of Andhra origin live in Hyderabad. “Are there Telangana people in Hyderabad or not? Or did they migrate to Mumbai? Can anyone believe such a b******* report,” he asked. He said the late Prof. Jayashankar had reviewed all the budgets, distribution of river water, and jobs and had found that a great injustice has been done to Telangana.
Taking potshots at the cultural hegemony of Andhras, he said that Adi Kavi was not Nannayya but Palakurthy Somanat-hudu, and that Andhra people who had 'Andhra Mata' changed it to 'Telugu Talli'. “Who wants Telugu Talli? We have our own Talli, Telangana,” he remarked.