Rich tributes paid to Dr Ambedkar
Leaders across the political spectrum joined the people across the country in paying rich floral tributes to Bharatratna Dr Baba Saheb Ambedkar on his 121st birth anniversary on Thursday.
Among the first who proceeded to the Tank Bund to garland the statue of the Father of the Indian Constitution, Chief Minister N Kiran Kumar Reddy called on the people to follow the ideals of set by Dr Ambedkar so that disparities between the rich and poor can be eliminated.
Ministers Sabitha Indra Reddy, Danam Nagendar, Pithani Satnarayana, Anam Ramnarayan Reddy, P Shankar Rao and Mukesh Goud too paid rich floral tributes to the statue of Dr Ambedkar.
Apart from the ruling party leaders, Telugu Desam Party president N Chandrababu Naidu, Praja Rajyam Party president K Chiranjeevi, Communist Party of India state secretary K Narayana, Communist Party of India (Marxist) leader BV Raghavulu, Hyderabad Mayor B Karthika Reddy too paid homage to the departed leader of the masses.
The political leaders extolled Dr Ambedkar’s virtues and lauded his services to the uplift of Dalits.
Speaking after garlanding Dr Ambedkar’s statue, Bharatiya Janata Party state president G Kishen Reddy charged the state government of diverting a huge chunk of funds earmarked for the welfare of SC/STs for other purposes.
Mr Kishen Reddy demanded that the Centre and the state government take concrete steps to ensure that funds earmarked for one purpose cannot be used to some other purpose. “A Legislation to this effect, bringing the Ministers, Public Representatives and officials under its ambit would be most welcome,” said he.
Another BJP leader Bandaru Dattatreya alleged that large chunks of lands assigned for the underprivileged were transferred to private parties during the regime of former chief minister YS Rajasekhara Reddy. Mr Dattatreya demanded that the government rescind these allocations and take possession of all these lands immediately.
CPM state secretary BV Raghavulu said the State government has virtually left the principles of social welfare to the wind and has forgotten the promises made with regard to the welfare of SC/STs and backward classes in the State.
“The post of the SC/ST Commission’s chairman lies vacant and even after two years of pleasthe government has not allotted any funds for the Nodal Agency,” the CPM leader lamented.