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Our Bureau

Hyderabad , March 16

THE row over naming the upcoming international airport at Shamshabad after the late Prime Minister Rajiv Gandhi took a serious turn on Wednesday with police detaining Mr N. Chandrababu Naidu and other senior Telugu Desam Party leaders here.

They were taken into custody when they tried to take out an impromptu rally at the NTR Ghat near Secretariat.

The TDP leaders contended that it was an insult to Telugus to name the airport after Rajiv Gandhi, ignoring TDP-founder and former Chief Minister N.T. Rama Rao. The police released them two hours later.

Reacting sharply to the criticism on the naming issue, the State Government said it was ready to christen the existing airport at Begumpet after the TDP founder's name.

Addressing a press conference here on Wednesday, Mr K. Rosaiah, Finance Minister, said it was the Union Government, not the State Government that decided to name the Begumpet airport after Rajiv Gandhi in 1992.

"The Union Cabinet under the leadership of the then Prime Minister P.V. Narasimha Rao passed a resolution in this regard in August 1992," he said.

Interestingly, the TDP and its ally, Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) has been demanding that the new airport be named after Narasimha Rao.

Releasing a `fact list' with regard to the airport, Mr Rosaiah said the Chief Minister took the consent of the promoters of the airport and the Union Minister of State for Civil Aviation to announce in December (when the Government signed a concessional agreement with promoters) to name the airport after Rajiv Gandhi.

He said the MPs of Telugu Desam appealed to the Union Government to consider naming the domestic terminal at the new airport after N.T. Rama Rao as the existing airport would be closed for commercial operations once the new airport came into being. "But the new airport will have only one terminal," he said.

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Oommen Chandy reconstitutes Planning Board

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