Hyderabad, Feb. 19 -- Telangana Minister Ponnam Prabhakar on Wednesday defended the state government's decision to reduce work hours for Muslim employees during Ramzan, stating that similar provisions have existed for the past 25 years.

Hitting out at the BJP for politicizing the move, he said, "When your (BJP's) coalition government is in Andhra Pradesh, a GO was issued on February 11 that all Muslim employees could go for Namaz during the month of Ramazan. This is not new; it has been happening for the last 25 years... We also issued a similar order, and now they are doing politics over it... There should be politics on development, and everything should not be about religion..."

Meanwhile, BJP spokesperson Prakash Reddy criticized th...