A few villagers belonging to Nanded district, Maharashtra, on the 17th of September, met K. Chandrashekar Rao, the Chief Minister of Telangana and urged him to contest the Maharashtra Assembly elections.
The elected representatives of the villages, spread over 5 Assembly legislative segments of Nanded, visited KCR at Telangana Bhavan, Hyderabad. During the meeting, they appealed to KCR to contest the elections and appreciated the welfare schemes of the Telangana Rashtra Samithi (TRS) for the development of Telangana and its citizens.
The villagers of Nanded are protesting against the Maharashtra Government. The villagers demanded either the 5 Assembly segments be merged into Telangana as they share the Telangana border or welfare schemes similar to those in Telangana be implemented in Maharashtra as well.
The 5 Assembly segments which share the Telangana border are Nagaon, Bhokar, Degloor, Kinwat and Hathgaon.
The villagers met KCR regarding the matter and asked him to contest the Assembly elections from the respective segments. The representatives also proposed they would contest the upcoming Maharashtra Assembly elections on TRS tickets, if the TRS allows them to do so.
The representatives said, “We will agitate with this demand. We will contest the upcoming Assembly polls with this slogan. If KCR gives us an opportunity, we will contest on the TRS tickets.”
The Sarpanch of one of the village segments said, “Our villages are bordering with those of Telangana. Farmers in Telangana are getting Rs. 10,000 as financial assistance for every acre per year under the ‘Rythu Bandhu Scheme’. Our government is not implementing any such scheme for us.” He further said, “Even poor people in Telangana are getting Rs. 2,016 per month as pension whereas, in Maharashtra, they are getting meagre Rs. 600.”
In addition, the farmers of the villages complained of irrigation and water scarcity issues in Maharashtra.
This is not the first time the villagers of Maharashtra’s villages demanded a merger. In the past, approximately 40 villages of Dharmabad Taluka also put forth this demand.
The delegation which met KCR said, “Against this backdrop, we are demanding the Maharashtra State government to implement the welfare schemes similar to those implemented in Telangana. In case if the Maharashtra State Government is not in a position to do so, we are demanding a merger of our villages into the Telangana State.”
As of now, the TRS Government did not respond to the request. KCR said the TRS will get back soon with a decision about whether the Party would contest the Maharashtra Assembly elections.
The Maharashtra Assembly elections are scheduled to be held in October 2019.
Stay tuned for further updates.
