KTR pens an open letter to Amit Shah

Hyderabad: TRS working president and IT Minister KT Rama Rao posing a barrage of questions in an open letter to the Union Home Minister Amit Shah and sought to haul over the coals on Friday, driving home the point the intense discrimination the BJP government at the Centre had against Telangana State.

Rama Rao pointed out that the Centre was coming up with quite a few projects to Gujarat Shah's and Prime Minister Narendra Modi's home State though it was not binding on the union government to do so even as it denied approving projects that were rightfully allotted to Telangana under the AP Reorganization Act.

Taking on Shah point-by-point, the KTR sought an answer to the union government's promise to set up a coach factory in Kazipet, pointing out that the Centre while claiming there was no demand for coach factories, had sanctioned the factory to Gujarat with an investment of Rs 20,000 crore. "Is this not discrimination towards Telangana," he asked.

Despite Telangana appealing for Navodaya schools, IIMs, Tribal University, IIIT and other educational institutes, not one was approved for the State, the KTR said, and asked Shah to explain the reasons for failing to sanction at least one educational institution to the State.

Appreciating Prime Minister Narendra Modi's anguish when a Gujarat medical student was meted out injustice during admission, the Minister reminded that since BJP came to power, not a single medical college had been approved for Telangana. Do the sufferings of Telangana students not cause pain to the Prime Minister or yourself? Rama asked.

He went on to point out that not a single rupee of assistance was extended to the Arbitration Centre in Hyderabad but in competition, another Arbitration Centre was declared for Gujarat. "Is this not a fact?" the Minister asked. Interestingly, while union Tourism Minister G Kishan Reddy announced the setting up of the World Health Organisation's Traditional Medicinal Centre in Hyderabad, within days the Centre sanctioned it to Gujarat, the Minister said, asking: "Is this not discrimination?"

The Telangana government, he said, has been appealing to the Centre to refer the 575 tmcft allocation of water in the River Krishna water issue to the Brijesh Kumar Tribunal but even after eight years, the Centre failed to address the issue. "In fact, by setting up the Krishna River Management Board, the Centre is deliberately delaying the exercise to fix water sharing dispute," Rama Rao charged.

He also reminded Amit Shah about the former union Minister late Sushma Swaraj's promise to accord national project status to Palamuru Rangareddy Lift Irrigation Scheme at a public meeting in 2014. Stating that the Centre had scrapped the ITIR project in Hyderabad even as the city was excelling in the IT industry, he asked: "Has the Centre initiated any alternate scheme to support Hyderabad's growth in the IT sector?"