Union Minister Kishan Reddy lashes out at BRS for opposing Navy project

Hyderabad: Union Minister of Coal and Mines, G Kishan Reddy criticised the BRS leaders for politicising the establishment of a Very Low Frequency (VLF) Communication Transmission Station (Radar Center) for the Indian Navy in Damagundam of Vikarabad district.

Addressing the media on Tuesday, he said, Telangana is home to several defence projects and it is another prestigious project related to national security coming to Telangana. He welcomed Union Defence Minister Rajnath Singh performing Bhumi Puja for the project on Tuesday.

Kishan Reddy said that the INS Kattabomman Radar Station of VLF Communication station at Tirunelveli, Tamil Nadu is the first in the country. It has been serving the Navy since 1990.

The second VLF communication transmission station in the country will be set up at Vikarabad.

A communication system will be established for ships and submarines. During wartime, regular programmes will establish a radar system to communicate with crews on ships and submarines.

The project was proposed in 2010 during Manmohan Singh's tenure. After that various permissions were obtained. On 12th December 2017, the Departments of Environment, Forest, Science and Technology of the Government of Telangana gave permission vide GEO no. 44 was released.

About 1100 hectares of land in the Damagundam forest area of Hyderabad Forest Division has been given for setting up the VLF Radar Centre.

However, the BRS party and KCR's family are acting irresponsibly and with double talk and that shows its bankruptcy.

He said that when the BRS was in power, it asked for Bison Polo Land to construct a new Secretariat in Secunderabad for allocating land for the Navy project. However, many sportspersons and environmentalists wrote letters to the Defence Department. Also, a plea has been submitted to the court, arguing that the Bison Polo Ground should not be allocated for the construction of the new secretariat. The BRS is the habit of saying one thing while in power and quite another when it is in opposition. The BRS party has been acting irresponsibly in the matter of national security and defence.

He said that it is not right for any citizen to oppose programmes related to national defence.

BRS chief K Chandrasekhara Rao and BRS MLA KT Rama Rao opposing the project would mean fighting against the security and integrity of the country.

Kishan Reddy criticised the negative propaganda of indiscriminate felling of trees and devotees would be prevented from visiting the Damagundam Ramalingeswara Swamy temple. "We will take up the issue with the defence minister to add more facilities to the temple." The project is coming up after 14 long years of several consultations, discussions and obtaining all necessary approvals. It is not appropriate on the part of some to agitate against the project, he said.

Kishan Reddy said that only 1500 trees would be relocated out of 1.95 lakh trees in the area. The state is home to the cantonment, DRDO, DRDA, Bharat Dynamics, and Airforce base. Now the Navy base is another prestigious project coming to the State. He thanked Prime Minister Narendra Modi for the project to be established in Telangana.