4 govt employees get memo for skipping KTR birthday event; BJP asks monarchy in Telangana?

The Bharatiya Janata Party on Friday questioned the Telangana government over the show cause notice issued to some employees of the Bellampally Municipal Council after they skipped the birthday celebration of Municipal Minister and Chief Minister K Chandrashekar Rao's son K Taraka Rama Rao or KTR.

Ahead of KTR's birthday on July 24, a WhatsApp message was sent to all municipal officials to attend a special birthday celebration programme being organised in the Bellampally Government hospital.

Three officials -- T Rajeswari (Senior Assistant), Punnam Chander (Junior Assistant), Mohan (System Manager) and Shravan (Bill collector) -- skipped the event, following which they were issued memos.

The July 25 memo asks the "erring" officials to explain why action should not be taken against them for not attending the event. The memo from the Bellampally municipal commission further warned of disciplinary action against them if they did not respond to the memo. 

The BJP lashed out at the TRS government. BJP leader Amit Malviya took to Twitter to share a photograph of the memo. He further said, "Last we knew, Telangana still had a government that was elected to serve people or has it transformed into a monarchy, fiefdom of KCR family?"

"KTR may be the prince-in-waiting, but as far as the government of Telangana is concerned, it is expected to serve the people rather than demanding subservience from government employees. The chief minister is 

Following the backlash, the controversial memo has been withdrawn. TRS leaders sought to downplay the controversy. TRS leaders said that the entire controversy is a needless one since KTR himself had announced that there should be no birthday celebration because the state is witnessing devastating floods.

The TRS leaders defended that the said programme mentioned in the memo being shared by BJP leaders is about a plantation programme, which is common government ritual during occasions.