Hyderabad polls: BJP promises range from free metro, bus travel for women, to tabs for school kids

The Telangana BJP has promised free travel for women in the metro and state transport buses, free tabs for the needy government schoolchildren to aid in online learning.

The party's manifesto for the GHMC elections, scheduled on December 1, also assures Rs 25,000 relief for the flood-affected families, and one lakh houses for the poor under the PM Awas Yojana, if elected to power.

For families who already received Rs 10,000 aid (as announced by the TRS government), rest Rs 15,000 would be credited, the BJP says.

In a controversial assurance, the party document also says that all challans of traffic violations pending on two and three-wheelers would be waived. The announcement earlier made by state unit chief Bandi Sanjay came under severe criticism, especially from the TRS, which accused the BJP of encouraging rule violations.

BJP's other promises include free drinking water, free power to hair cutting saloons, laundries, weavers, and other artisans.

The party at the same time says it will control electricity theft in the old city. “Theft of power worth Rs 600 crore happens annually there, but the present government is afraid of booking cases in old city areas. We will put a check to this.”

Telangana Liberation Day

The party's state unit, which has been demanding the K Chandrasekhar Rao government to celebrate the Hyderabad Liberation Day, said it would conduct September 17 events officially if elected to the mayor post in Hyderabad.

The erstwhile Hyderabad state of the Nizam, comprising areas in Telangana, Karnataka and Maharashtra, was joined with Indian union on September 17, 1948, after a “police action” called Operation Polo.

The BJP credits the merger to the firm vision and decision of then home minister Sardar Vallabhbhai Patel. The party also promised to build a memorial in Hyderabad “for the people who laid down their lives for Telangana's liberation from a tyrannical rule.”

Releasing the manifesto at the BJP office on Thursday, Maharashtra former chief minister Devendra Fadnavis said: “he fails to understand why the Hyderabad Liberation Day is not commemorated by the TRS government.”

“We will celebrate September 17 as Mukti Diwas,” Fadnavis said.