Telangana Chief Minister has sought Centre's support in resolving some of the pending issues, including the proposed move to increase reservation quota, while requesting it to provide financial assistance of Rs 20,000 crore for the mega Kaleshwaram irrigation project.
During his hour-long meeting with Prime Minister Nerandra Modi on Saturday, the Chief Minister had a detailed discussion on several pending issues, which are part of the AP Reorganisation Act and other issues including early clearance for a bill seeking to increase reservation limit cap to over 50 per cent.
Telangana had passed a Bill last year which provides for reservations to SCs, STs, BCs and minorities in excess of the cap set by the Supreme Court.
Key issues
The Chief Minister discussed 11 key issues including Bill on reservations and submitted letters pertaining to them.
Rao in his letter mentioned, “Consequent to the formation of Telangana State, proportion of weaker sections population has increased compared to the combined State of Andhra Pradesh. The proportion of Backward Communities population has increased to over 50% of the total population. Therefore, there arose a need to relook at the percentage of Reservations in favour of SC/ST/BC in the State.”
Other issues include amendment to the Presidential Order on Zonal system, creation of separate High Court after the bifurcation as per the AP Reorganisation Act, Grant of Rs 20,000 crore for Kaleshwaram Project, early completion of various the Railway Projects.
During the meeting, the Chief Minister also took up the issue of transfer of defence lands to the State Government for construction of new Secretariat building, funding related to development of Backward Areas, establishment of Indian Institute of Management at and sanctioning Indian Institute of Information Technology, sanction of Jawahar Navodaya Vidyalayas for the reining 21.
IT Region
The PM was also requested to facilitate the setting up of the Information Technology Investment Region (ITIR) in the State, which had been lately shelved.
The Chief Minister had mentioned that some anchor companies have already started setting up industries. However, Ravi Shankar Prasad, Union Minister of Information Technology had recently announced that GoI has dropped the ITIR Scheme.
The Chief minister mentioned, “As you would appreciate if Government of India does not implement the ITIR Scheme after launching it five years ago, it will dent the credibility of the Government.”
The State of Telangana and defence have had long pending issues and the recent proposal of the chief Minister to take up construction at the defence land now under the Cantonment Board gains importance.
The state has requested for transfer of the Bison polo ground for construction of a new Secretariat and widening of the highway adjacent.