Centre continues to sideline Telangana, Congress government fails to push back

In the last Union Budget, the Centre sanctioned Rs. 15,000 crore for Andhra Pradesh, including funding for the Polavaram project and Amaravati capital development. Andhra Pradesh Minister Nara Lokesh publicly thanked the BJP government for the allocations. Telangana, on the other hand, received negligible allocations.

Hyderabad: The BJP-led Union government’s consistent discrimination against Telangana continues even under the Congress-led regime, just as it did during the previous BRS administration. Meanwhile, Andhra Pradesh, an NDA ally, continues to benefit from Delhi’s political favouritism.

In the last Union Budget, the Centre sanctioned Rs. 15,000 crore for Andhra Pradesh, including funding for the Polavaram project and Amaravati capital development. Andhra Pradesh Minister Nara Lokesh publicly thanked the BJP government for the allocations. Telangana, on the other hand, received negligible allocations.

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In the current Union budget too, Telangana was bypassed. No major projects were sanctioned. BRS working president KT Rama Rao had earlier called out the BJP government and the State’s eight MPs for failing to defend Telangana’s interests. The Congress, now in power, has done no better.

Water sharing disputes have only added to the friction. Even as Andhra Pradesh pushes ahead with the controversial Banakacherla project, linking Godavari and Krishna rivers, and issues persist over Krishna water allocation, the Centre has turned a blind eye to Telangana’s repeated objections. The bias is neither new nor subtle—it has been the pattern since State formation.

The BRS government had submitted detailed proposals over the years: sanction of the Information Technology Investment Region (ITIR), removal of GST on handlooms, funds for Mulugu Tribal University, Bayyaram Steel Plant, and national status for key industrial corridors connecting Hyderabad with Nagpur, Bengaluru and Chennai. Repeated reminders about the promises made under the AP Reorganisation Act of 2014 were ignored.

Now, despite the change in State leadership, little has changed. Chief Minister A Revanth Reddy and his ministers have submitted multiple proposals to the Centre: Rs. 24,269 crore for Metro Phase-II, 50 percent cost-sharing for the Regional Ring Road (Southern part), the Regional Ring Railway, a Greenfield Expressway from the proposed dry port to Bandar port, inclusion in the Prime Minister’s Semiconductor Mission, and support for defence-related MSMEs and corridors. Most of these remain stuck, with no response from the Centre.

The Congress government, despite coming in with promises of assertiveness, has failed to make any meaningful headway. Apart from token approvals, Delhi has kept Telangana waiting.

The BJP’s message is clear. Those who are not politically aligned with the saffron party get pushed to the margins. The Congress government’s inability to counter this has only deepened Telangana’s disadvantage.