KCR plays truant again!

Hyderabad: Chief Minister K Chandrashekar Rao's visit to North India from Friday is timed in such a manner that he will not be available in the city when Prime MinisterNarendra Modi would be on a day's visit to Hyderabad.

Modi will be attending an official programme at ISB (Indian School of Business) on May 26 in Hyderabad. The PM will attend the annual day celebrations of the ISB and deliver his address.

Official sources said the Chief Minister will not be available in the city for a week as he has gone on political work to New Delhi and is scheduled to attend different programmes till May 27. It will be the second time that KCR is not participating in the programmes attended by the PM. The last time when he could not attend the Prime Minister's programme was the inauguration of Samata Murthy Statue of Sri Ramanujacharya during February.

Though officials claim that KCR's seven-day trip was not a deliberate attempt to skip the PM programme, Opposition parties, particularly the BJP, said the CM had finalised the schedule to go to Delhi only after the confirmation of PM's visit to Hyderabad on May 26. It is learnt that even KCR's Cabinet colleagues will not join the PM programme. Only officials will assist the Central authorities to make necessary security arrangements during the visit of the PM. Meanwhile, Chief Secretary Somesh Kumar directed the officials to make elaborate arrangements for Prime Minister's visit to Hyderabad.

At a meeting held at BRKR Bhavan, the Chief Secretary reviewed the arrangements being made in connection with the visit of Modi. Somesh Kumar informed the officials that he would be participating in the programme at the ISB. He directed the officials to follow each and every procedure properly as per the protocol with effective coordination of all line departments so as to ensure that there is no communication gap. State DGP Mahendar Reddy, MAUD Secretary Arvind Kumar, Special Chief Secretary to Energy Sunil Sharma and other top officials were present.