Days after Prime Minister Narendra Modi announced a special package for Bihar, the Telangana State is demanding a similar package for the new state. Raising the demand for special package for Telangana, Chief Minister K Chandrashekar Rao, at a press conference in Karimnagar, said he would visit Delhi to discuss about extending a special package for Telangana with PM and others.
“We have written to Prime Minister over 50 times (about special package) and also met him nearly six times. I also met union minister Arun Jaitley for extending the limit of FRBM but our requests have not been considered till now,’’ K Chandrashekar Rao said adding that he would visit Delhi again before his tour to China.
The Telangana government wanted the Centre to raise the Fiscal Responsibility and Budget Management (FRBM) limit from 3 to 3.5 per cent.
The increase in the limit would benefit the state in getting more loans from financial institutions or any other external agencies.
As of now, the state government can take loans upto `14,000 crore. With many welfare schemes and projects lined up, the state government wants the FRMB limit raised to get more loans.
Telangana wants the Centre to implement the provisions incorporated in the AP Reorganisation Act apart from extending special package. In Hyderabad, TRS MLAs and MLCs too raised a pitch for special package. “The Centre is showing a step-motherly treatment towards Telangana,’’ TRS MLC Karne Prabhakar alleged.
“We want the special package to develop our rural Telangana but not to make Telangana into a Singapore or Hong Kong,’’ he said adding that the TS government is giving priority to welfare and development and it needs a package similar to Bihar.
Joining the chorus, Mahbubnagar MLA Srinivas Goud said the Centre should extend a special package to Telangana or else they would be forced to take up an agitation again. “We are not new to agitation nor we fear agitations. We want a special package for the state,’’ Srininvas Goud demanded.
The TRS is of the view that though the state is a revenue surplus state, it needs special package so that it can go ahead with its prestigious projects and welfare schemes. Sources said the TRS is planning to exert pressure on Centre in the coming days. By this, the government also wants the State BJP in a fix as the latter is taking a dig at the functioning of the TRS government.
“We want the BJP state unit also to take up the issue of special package with the Centre instead of making a hue and cry over the schemes and development works of the state government,’’ Prabhakar said.
Source: The New Indian Express