Prime Minister Narendra Modi is doing injustice to Telangana. Modi, who is shifting projects from Telangana to his home state of Gujarat, has done a grave injustice to Telangana in the case of AYUSH and the Railway Locomotive Unit.
Mr Modi who did not give a coach factory to Telangana on the pretext that there is no need for new locomotive factories in the country at present, on Wednesday laid the foundation stone for a locomotive factory unit in Dahod, Gujarat, on Wednesday at a cost of Rs 21,969 crore.
The then Prime Minister Mrs Indira Gandhi promised in 1980 to set up a railway coach factory in Kazipet.
The state bifurcation Act also promised the same. The BJP Government deliberately ignored the promises made to Telangana state.
The Modi government laid the foundation stone for the Rs 625 crore Marathwada Railway Coach Factory in Latur, Maharashtra, shortly after a Union Minister announced in Parliament that the country’s needs would be met by the existing coach factories. In addition, it has dumped proposals for about 1,484 km of railway line submitted by the Telangana government. The Rs 254 crore Viability Gap Fund (VGF) due for the Hyderabad Metro train is also not given. The Mumbai-Ahmedabad bullet train, which was laid at a cost of Rs 1.10 lakh crore in 2020, is set to run in 2023. The Hyderabad-Mumbai bullet train project has been under survey and is being delayed inordinately.
Telangana is one of the four major states that pay lakhs of crores of rupees annually to the Center in the form of taxes. Modi is diverting these funds to Gujarat. In July last year, Gandhinagar Capital Railway Station was modernized. He laid the foundation stone for gauge conversion works and electrification works of Surendranagar-Pipavav section at a cost of Rs. 74 crore. However, proposals to upgrade the Industrial Corridor and Defense Corridor lines on the Hyderabad-Bangalore, Hyderabad-Warangal, Hyderabad-Vijayawada, Hyderabad-Nagpur routes related to Telangana have been neglected.
Chief Minister KCR said that the present BJP government, like the previous Congress government, has shown a step motherly attitude to Telangana.
By Gollapudi Srinivasa Rao