Fight Centre within Parliament and outside

Hyderabad: Far from being an ‘ally’ of the Union government, the Telangana Rashtra Samiti (TRS), proposes to take on the Centre, both inside and outside Parliament, to address pending issues concerning non-fulfilment of promises made in the bifurcation act, financial support to projects like Mission Bhagiratha, reservations for STs and minorities, national highways, and Bayyaram Steel Plant, among others.  

This being the last Parliament session before the General Election, the TRS MPs have been told by Chief Minister K Chandrasekhar Rao to leave no stone unturned for mounting pressure on the Centre to achieve the State’s reasonable demands.  

According to party leaders, TRS MPs would register their protests in Parliament over non-fulfilment of promises made to TS and denial of central assistance to various post-bifurcation programmes of the State. The MPs will corner the Centre on unfulfilled promises made in the Andhra Pradesh State Re-Organisation Act -2014, non-implementation of National Highways in the State as well as core reservation issues.

All along, the TRS has been supporting the Centre even on various contentious issues like GST and demonetisation. Now, it wants to send out a clear, unmistakable message to people that it is not an ally of the Centre as is being alleged by certain political parties, including the Congress.  Partly leaders said KCR and TRS MPs had given several representations to Union ministers concerned on many occasions. Yet, there has been no concrete response till date.  Sources said that the party MPs would zero in on the promises made in AP Reorganisation Act. 

Apart from this, they would bring to the notice of the government the recommendations of NITI Aayog, including the one for giving financial support to projects like Mission Bhagiratha. The promise of steel plant at Bayyaram in Khammam, granting national project status to Kaleshwaram, reservations for STs and Muslim minorities, and other issues were represented to the Prime Minister during the recent visit of the Chief Minister.

The party has already targeted the Centre on the road network in the State. TRS MP B Vinod Kumar had highlighted the delay in launching TS road projects, though similar works have begun in Andhra Pradesh. He said that the Centre had given approval for upgradation of 25 state roads as national highways up to a 3,155 km length between 2014 and 2017. Yet, only 1,388 km of state roads have till date been notified as national highways. 

Nizamabad MP K Kavitha said that they would meet Prime Minister Narendra Modi and urge him to implement the promises made to Telangana that have remained unkept. Her party would fight it out with the Centre on defence land for construction of the new Secretariat and take up other issues.