PM disappointed the State: Uttam

Hyderabad: Telangana Congress senior leader and MP N. Uttam Kumar Reddy expressed his disappointment over Prime Minister Narendra Modi's visit to Telangana on Saturday. The Congress leader said that the PM did not announce any significant projects for the State.

He pointed out that most of the projects inaugurated by Modi had already been announced years ago and delayed. Instead of acknowledging these delays, Modi treated them as if they were new initiatives. For example, the AIIMS Bibinagar project had been approved four years ago and the works were not yet completed. Rather than apologising for the delay, the PM ceremoniously laid the foundation stone again without providing a completion deadline.

Uttam highlighted that AIIMS Bibinagar was approved by the Union Cabinet on December 17, 2018, with Rs. 1,028 crores allocated for the project. Only Rs. 31.71 crore has been released so far. The project's original completion deadline of September 2022 has been extended multiple times, most recently to January 2025. However, the Centre has remained silent on the current deadline.

The Congress MP also accused the BJP government of deliberate discrimination against Telangana. While the Andhra Pradesh Reorganisation Act mandated the establishment of an AIIMS in both Telangana and Andhra Pradesh, the Centre has released more than 50 per cent of allocated funds for 14 out of 16 AIIMS across the country. The AIIMS in Telangana got a raw deal, he added.