Officials are humiliating me: Shankar Rao

Handlooms and Textiles Minister Dr P Shankar Rao alleged that he was repeatedly being subjected to humiliation by the officials at the instance of Chief Minister N Kiran Kumar Reddy.

Talking to reporters at the Congress Legislature Party office here on Tuesday, Dr Shankar Rao said that although he was a cabinet minister, city MLA and a senior Congress leader, the officials have completely ignored him in the Rachabanda programmes held in the limits of Greater Hyderabad Municipal Corporation. He said he was neither invited nor intimated by the officials about any programme. Stating that ignoring a cabinet minister in the official programmes was an open violation of protocol norms, he alleged that he was being ignored at the instance of the Chief Minister who is repeatedly trying to humiliate him in one way or the other.

Citing another instance, he said the State Government has recently released a book about the Partnership Summit scheduled to be held in Hyderabad from January 11-13. He said although the book was also about the Handlooms and Textiles ministry, but the officials did not invite him for the book release. Further, his name was completely ignored in the event.

Dr Shankar Rao also refused to answer a question on whether he plans to lodge a complaint with the Congress High Command about the issue. He also did not specify whether he would attend the meeting of State Cabinet scheduled to be held on Wednesday. Interestingly, he proposed to hold an all-party meeting at the Lake View Guest House to discuss the problems of Handlooms workers in the State on Wednesday whose timing coincides with the timing of cabinet meeting.