Telangana IT and Industries Minister KT Rama Rao has flayed the Centre for not facilitating in grounding several projects and keeping mum on the promises made to Telangana and Andhra Pradesh at the time of bifurcation of the united Andhra Pradesh.

Alleging that the Centre has done nothing in fulfilling its promises during the last six-and-half years, he felt that campaigns like ‘Atmanirbhar’ and ‘Make-in-India’ should not end up being mere sloganeering.

“In the interests of the country, let economics supersede politics. Just because we don’t sync politically with you, it should not mean you don’t support us,” he said.

‘Centre not supporting’

Addressing a Confederation of Indian Industry (CII-Telangana) meet on ‘T-Next - Re-imagining and Catalysing Growth for a Sustainable Tomorrow’ held here on Friday, he cited the examples of the Pharma City near Hyderabad and textiles park project in Warangal. “We say we are competing with China. But when it comes to large manufacturing projects like the Pharma City, the government is not supporting,” he said.

“The government should support the States that acquired land for projects. We have acquired 12,000 acres for the Pharma City project. Why will you not support us? Are we not part of the country? Is Make-in-Telangana not Make-in-India?” he wondered.

The two electronic manufacturing clusters sanctioned by the UPA government were filled. The State wanted the Centre to allot more but its response was cold.

Promises ignored

He alleged that the Centre went back on its promise to set up a Railway Coach Factory at Kazipet. “We allotted 150 acres for the proposed factory, while the requirement was only 60 acres. Still, the Centre has decided to scrap the proposal,” he said.

Stating that Hyderabad produces 35 per cent of all the vaccines produced in the world, he lamented that the city didn’t have a vaccine testing facility. “The vaccine firms are being forced to send the samples to Kasauli in Himachal Pradesh, which is 1,200 kilometres away,” he said.

Referring to the plan to set up Defence Manufacturing Cluster in Bundelkhand, he said that Hyderabad had a robust defence research and manufacturing ecosystem. “We appealed to the Centre to develop a Defence Manufacturing Cluster along Hyderabad-Bengaluru stretch. But they are setting up at Bundelkhand, where there is no Defence industry,” he said.

“It maybe because Bundelkhand (Uttar Pradesh) has 80 Lok Sabha seats, while Karnataka, Andhra Pradesh and Telangana has less than 80 seats,” he said.

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