The ministers of the Bharat Rashtra Samithi (BRS) government in Hyderabad have been actively writing open letters to various Union cabinet ministers expressing their concerns about issues affecting the people. Municipal Administration Minister KT Rama Rao initiated the trend of open letters to the Centre. In his first letter, he demanded an apology from the Centre for the skyrocketing prices of petroleum products and accused them of looting the people by citing international crude oil prices as the reason for fuel price hikes. Rama Rao pointed out that in 2013, when the cost of one crude oil barrel was $110, the cost of one litre of petrol was Rs 76, whereas now, when the cost of one crude oil barrel is $66, the cost of one litre of petrol is Rs 110.
Rama Rao also wrote to Union Minister Hardeep Singh Puri criticizing the government’s rejection of Phase-II of the Metro Rail project based on illogical reasons and false reports. He expressed surprise that the Government of India had sanctioned Metro projects for many cities with less traffic but had deemed Hyderabad ineligible for a Metro Rail project. In another open letter, Rama Rao criticized the privatization of the Visakhapatnam Steel Plant.
Health Minister T Harish Rao also wrote a letter condemning the Centre’s decision to increase the prices of life-saving medicines by 12%, calling it an act of taking away healthcare from the poor and middle-class sections. He stated that if the prices of more than 800 essential medicines, such as painkillers, antibiotics, anti-infective medicines, and medicines used in the treatment of fever, infections, BP, skin diseases, anaemia, etc., are increased, it will be a burden on the poor and middle-class people.
Meanwhile, Roads and Buildings Minister V Prashanth Reddy questioned the hike in toll taxes at the National Highways and wrote to Union Minister Nitin Gadkari, stating that the Centre had increased toll tax by 300% over the last nine years. He also highlighted discrimination towards Telangana in landing the projects. Although the Centre had sanctioned a total of Rs 1,25,176 Crores for 113 National Highway projects and CRIF works in Telangana state since 2014, it had spent only Rs 20,350 Crore in the last nine years.
Recently, women ministers Satyavathi Rathod and Sabita Indra Reddy also wrote open letters to Governor Tamilisai Soundararajan, stating that the Centre and Raj Bhavan were both responsible for the problems faced by unemployed youth in the state. Some MLAs have also written open letters to the Centre and Union ministers highlighting public issues.
