BJP leader flays iPhone proposal to Standing Committee, terms it 'loot' of Telangana exchequer

Hyderabad (Telangana) [India], December 19 (ANI): Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) leader G Vivek Venkataswamy on Saturday termed iPhone proposal to Standing Committee members as 'loot of state exchequer'.
The BJP leader told ANI, "I strongly condemn this action. K Chandrashekar Rao has been looting the state exchequer. The most corrupt state government in the country is the KCR-led state government."
He added that the Standing Committee's term is getting over next month. "When the term was there, the Chief Minister K Chandrashekar Rao preponed the elections with a view of trying to see that opposition parties do not get enough time to campaign and set right the candidates and wanted to stump them by preponing the elections," he said.
The BJP leader further said Rs 27 lakh is being spent to purchase iPhones. Today the Standing Committee has approved iPhones to the corporators who are going to demit office.
It is to be noted that the decision came at a time when all the 17 members of the Standing Committee, which is the final authority to approve the development projects of the corporation, will demit office in the first week of February 2021. The proposal to buy the new iPhone 12 Pro Max (512GB) was among the 14 proposals that were listed on the agenda on Thursday. According to the proposal, each phone would cost Rs 1.6 lakh and approval for a total sum of Rs 27.23 lakh has been requested.
Venkataswamy further said losing so badly in the Greater Hyderabad Municipal Corporation (GHMC) election is a failure of KCR and his son KTR. "The leadership failures and governance failures, people have given an appropriate reply to their misgovernance. This misgovernance continues even today despite losing the corporation," he added.
In the recently concluded elections for 149 seats, the BJP won 48 seats, TRS 55, AIMIM 44 and Congress won two seats.
Later, the TRS also won the Neredmet Division of the GHMC after the counting of votes was taken up on December 9, following the Telangana High Court orders. With the victory in Neredmet, TRS's tally in the GHMC has gone up to 56. (ANI)