India will witness Afghanistan like situation if BJP keeps dividing people: Telangana CM KCR
Hyderabad, Jan 12: In a veiled attack on the BJP, ruling BRS president and Telangana Chief Minister K Chandrasekhar Rao, also known as KCR, on Thursday said stoking religious and caste fanaticism and divisiveness in society would lead to undesirable circumstances and a "Taliban-like situation and like Afghanistan."
Rao was addressing public meetings after inaugurating an integrated district Collectorates at Mahabubabad and Kothagudem.
He said peace, tolerance and wishing for the welfare of all are important if society is to make great progress.
"If religious and casteist fanaticism are promoted, people are divided, such are the policies followed, it will become like hell. It will become like a Taliban-like affair, like in Afghanistan, and lead to a terrible situation. Due to this hatred, circumstances in which the country's lifeline itself would get burnt would arise. So, especially, youth should be alert," he said.
Saying that the country and State can achieve progress only if there is a progressive-minded and "impartial" government at the Centre, he favoured Telangana showing the way forward to the entire country in future politics.
He alleged that the GSDP of Telangana did not grow as it should have as the incumbent government at the Centre failed to perform on par with the State government.
The GSDP of Telangana was Rs 5 lakh crore at the time of State formation in 2014 and it rose to Rs 11.50 lakh crore today, Rao said.
"Due to the Centre's inefficient policies, Telangana alone lost Rs 3 lakh crore," he said. These figures are given by economists, RBI and CAG, he claimed.
The GSDP should have been Rs 14.50 lakh crore, but it stood at Rs 11.50 lakh crore due to the Centre's policies, he alleged.
Speaking at Bhadradri-Kothagudem, Rao said the party and government that takes care of all citizens equally would be a "great one" and that hatred caused among people along communal and casteist lines would hurt the country.
"If the country faces such a disturbance, if we become like a Taliban, will investments come? Will there be jobs? Will the existing industries remain? How will society be if disturbances occur and an atmosphere of curfew, lathicharge and firing prevails? You all are observing what is happening today, how evil attempts to put the country on the wrong path are taking place," he said.
Though the country is endowed with vast resources of water and electricity, there are inter-State water disputes and water shortage due to the bad policies of the Centre, he claimed.
It is shameful that the supply of drinking water and electricity is improper even in the national capital Delhi, he said.
While this is the prevailing situation, high-sounding speeches are made which serve no purpose, he further claimed.
Referring to the public meeting proposed to be organised by the BRS at Khammam near Bhadradri-Kothagudem on January 18, he said the meeting has been planned to raise people's awareness towards "saving the country".
BRS party sources had earlier said Rao is extending invitation to Chief Ministers of Delhi, Punjab and Kerala -- Arvind Kejriwal, Bhagwant Mann, and Pinarayi Vijayan respectively, along with Samajwadi Party chief Akhilesh Yadav and former Karnataka chief minister H D Kumaraswamy to share the dais with him.
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Over 1,400 accessibility-related complaints filed on govt app since 2021 launch, 75 pc solved: Data
New Delhi (PTI): More than 1,400 complaints related to accessibility have been lodged through the government's flagship Sugamya Bharat mobile application since its launch in 2021, with approximately 75 per cent of those resolved, according to official data.
The Sugamya Bharat app, designed to assist people with disabilities and the elderly, allows users to report accessibility issues in public infrastructure, transportation and buildings by uploading photos.
Information revealed following a Right to Information (RTI) request filed by PTI showed that 1,441 complaints were received on the app between 2021 and 2024. Of these, 1,081 were addressed after being forwarded to the authorities concerned.
The RTI response revealed that 647 complaints were received in the 2021-22 period, of which 567 were resolved. The following year, 530 complaints were lodged and 391 resolved. The app recorded 264 complaints in 2023-24 while 123 were addressed.
To further improve the app's functionality, the government plans to redesign the platform, incorporating artificial intelligence (AI) features.
A senior Department of Disability Affairs official said the upgraded Sugamya Bharat app would become a comprehensive platform for people with disabilities, offering an AI-powered chatbot, a multilingual interface, and tools for complaint registration and feedback.
The redesign is part of the government's broader efforts to enhance accessibility across India's built environment, transportation and ICT (Information and Communication Technology) ecosystems.
A partnership has been established with the NGO Mission Accessibility and the research institute I-STEM to develop the AI-enabled app.
With more than two per cent of India's population living with disabilities, experts believe that making disabled-friendly construction compliance mandatory during building plan approvals would significantly address challenges of accessibility.
The official said the government was collaborating with IIT-Kharagpur to develop a specialised course on designing accessible buildings. This course will be introduced in 27 institutions, including other IITs.
Since the app's launch, the complaint resolution process has faced logistical challenges, particularly at the state level, but the system has now been streamlined, the official said.
Disability rights activist Dr Satendra Singh noted that earlier versions of the app had technical limitations, particularly for visually-impaired users.
"That was a gap but they are addressing it," he said.
