Miffed Revanth plans huddle with south CMs

Hyderabad: Stating that the Union Budget has completely ignored Telangana, Chief Minister A Revanth Reddy on Tuesday alleged that the NDA government at the Centre was not just discriminating against the state but exhibited "bias".

Addressing the media on Tuesday evening, Revanth said that he would convene a meeting of Chief Ministers of Southern States. He said he had already informed the Karnataka and Tamil Nadu chief ministers about it. He would also invite the AP Chief Minister. This meeting, he said, was aimed to work out a coordinated action plan of the southern states to fight against the Centre for its rights.

Alleging that this was a ‘Kursi Bachao’ budget, Revanth said the three states together would expose the fact that Modi’s NDA means "Naidu-Nitish Dependent Alliance."

The eight Congress Lok Sabha members from Telangana would protest over the “raw deal” given to the state in the budget in Parliament, he said.

Miffed over the Centre’s attitude, Revanth said if this discrimination continues it would lead to another movement. Revanth said when the CMs of the southern states would meet they would also discuss issues like delimitation, delay in permissions for various key projects and gross neglect of southern states.

He expressed hope that the BRS would support the resolution condemning the discrimination shown towards the state. He urged LoP K Chandrasekhar Rao to attend the session and support the resolution and come forward to join the fight against the Centre. “If he does not attend the session and support it would mean that he had surrendered to BJP,” Revanth said. He said it was unfortunate that the Finance Minister did not even mention the word Telangana during her 90-minute budget speech. “This shows their vindictive attitude,” he said.

He said if the Centre ignores a major city like Hyderabad, how can Modi dream of achieving a 5 trillion dollar economy. “The slogan sabka saath sabka vikas is nothing but bogus. If the Centre was really serious about sabka vikas, it would not have ignored Telangana, he added.