Don’t create hurdles for Telangana’s growth, KTR to Centre

Says Union government has not accepted a single proposal of the State

Hyderabad: IT and Industries Minister KT Rama Rao on Friday requested the Centre not to create hurdles in industrial development of Telangana even if it was not willing to extend any cooperation with respect to various initiatives in the State.

NITI Aayog complimented the initiatives taken up by the State on several occasions and gave a few recommendations. Appreciating the industrial policy of Telangana, it said the same should be emulated in the country, the Minister said.

The Central government, he said, had neither acknowledged the good work nor allocated funds to Telangana. The Centre has not accepted a single proposal of the State. Referring to the Information Technology Investment Region (ITIR), he said several representations were given to Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Union Ministers concerned.

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“Chief Minister K Chandrashekhar Rao and I personally urged Prime Minister and Union Ministers about it. We also requested an alternative for ITIR. But there was no response. Yet, we are in the forefront in IT,” Rama Rao said during short discussion on ‘Progress of industries and IT sectors in Telangana’ in Telangana Legislative Council.

Stating that additional incentives were given to companies that were providing employment to locals, Rama Rao said since agriculture, IT and industries sectors were witnessing parallel development along with rural and urban development, Telangana had emerged as the fourth largest contributor to the country’s economy.

“Several people say the Central government has done a lot for the State. But it is Telangana which is contributing five per cent to GDP. What does it mean? We are punching above our weight,” he said.

He said efforts were on to revive Ramagundam Fertilizers and the State has already invested in it while revival of Bheema Cement in Nalgonda was in final stage. Several attempts were made to revive BILT factory in Kamalapur in the last seven years, but it did not materialise since there was no market for its product, he said, clarifying that industries were not confined to Hyderabad, Ranga Reddy and Medchal. Rama Rao said 48 letters were written to the Centre to sanction Hyderabad-Nagpur, Hyderabad-Bengaluru, Hyderabad-Mumbai, Hyderabad-Vijayawada and Hyderabad-Warangal industrial corridors for more development.

But there was no response from the Centre till now, he said. The Minister said more than 1,32,800 jobs were provided in the government sector, 16 lakh in industries and more than three lakh in IT sector apart from giving them training in skill development.

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