September 17 should be celebrated as Telangana Liberation Day: BJP

DK Aruna, the National Vice-President of Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) on Thursday demanded that September 17 be officially celebrated as Telangana Liberation Day.

"It is BJP's demand that September 17 be celebrated as Telangana Liberation Day. This date is extremely important for the state. While the rest of India got its independence on August 15, 1947, Telangana got its liberation on September 17, 1948. The Chief Minister KCR used this date to ignite the emotions of people during the Telangana movement. He talked about celebrating the Liberation Day of Telangana officially, but now, he does not even talk about it," Aruna told ANI.

She said that Union Home Minister Amit Shah was going to be in Nirmal for a meeting on September 17 and anyone willing to celebrate the Liberation Day of Telangana could participate in the meeting.

"This time, we will organise various events from September 17 to October 7. Prime Minister Narendra Modi is completing his 20 years of his political career as a Chief Minister and Prime Minister. We are doing sewa programmes for the occasion, like blood donation, health camps, distribution of clothing to poor. It will be carried out on a Pan-India basis," added Aruna.

She slammed the Telangana Cabinet Minister KT Rama Rao for not fulfilling his electoral promises, saying, "KTR told a lot of lies during his visit to Gadwal yesterday. He does not know anything besides lying. It was promised that Valmikis will be included in the list of Scheduled Tribes (ST) community but nothing has been done yet. I challenge him to speak about the development works and progress in Gadwal for the last 7 years. Even as an opposition leader, I fulfilled my promise of providing a status of the district of Gadwal."

( With inputs from ANI )