IT minister KT Rama Rao on Friday called on four Union ministers in New Delhi and sought their cooperation for the development of Telangana state, especially Hyderabad.
Rama Rao requested Union IT minister Ravishankar Prasad to release `100 crore for the T-Hub recently started in Hyderabad. Rama Rao also wanted Ravishankar Prasad to release `3,000 crore for the already sanctioned ITIR project.
“Ravishankar Prasad responded positively to the state’s requests and also agreed to come for the inauguration of the second phase of T-Hub,” Rama Rao told reporters in Delhi.
Later, KTR requested Union urban development minister M Venkaiah Naidu to include Karimnagar city under Smart Cities programme, instead of the earlier proposed Hyderabad. He also discussed with Venkaiah Naidu about developmental issues.
In his meeting with Union home minister Rajnath Singh, Rama Rao requested the former to expedite the process of increasing the Assembly segments to 153 as mentioned in the AP Reorganisation Act, 2014. The increase of number of Assembly seats require amendment to the AP Reorganisation Act, Rama Rao said and requested the home ministry to work in that direction. The amendment to AP Reorganisation Act was necessary and the provision of increasing the Assembly seats in APRA was in contrast to the Constitution.
Decide on FRBM: Rama Rao wanted Union finance minister Arun Jaitley to decide early on the Fiscal Responsibility and Budget Management (FRBM) Act soon enabling the state to get more borrowings.
Besides, he informed Jaitley that the term of the JICA loan obtained for the construction of Outer Ring Road (ORR) would expire by March end. However, the state’s share to the tune of `833 crore were in the accounts and wanted Jaitley to allow Telangana to utilise the balance amount from JICA.
Mayor B Rammohan, Telangana State special representatives S Venugopalachary, Ramachandra Tejavat and Karimnagar MP B Vinod Kumar accompanied KTR.
Source: The New Indian Express