Gujarat gets railway project, while Telangana gets nothing: Vinod Kumar
Hyderabad: Prime Minister Narendra Modi laid the foundation stone for upgrading the Railway workshop at Dahod in Gujarat into a locomotive production factory on Wednesday even as Telangana continued to be denied of any Railway project, said Telangana State Planning Board vice-chairman B Vinod Kumar.
In a statement issued here on Thursday, Vinod Kumar said the Prime Minister did not shy away from displaying stepmotherly treatment towards Telangana. The State’s demand for railway projects or for improving the railway infrastructure continued to be ignored. The Centre was ignoring Telangana’s growth by not sanctioning any big projects for the State. However, special sops were being announced for States heading for polls, he said.
Even the AP Reorganisation Act which said Indian Railways shall examine the feasibility of establishing a rail coach factory in Telangana and improve rail connectivity was also not implemented, he added.
On the Dahod project, Vinod said the project outlay stood at a staggering Rs 21,969 crore. “I believe this is a move to appease Gujarat people for votes in the ensuing elections. It is needless to say that the PM and his party focus exclusively on States that have upcoming polls,” he said.
The Rail as well as the Finance budgets have not bothered to cater to the needs of Telangana. All manufacturing units related to the Indian Railways are in UP, Bihar, West Bengal and Punjab and now Gujarat. There is not a single Railway related manufacturing unit in Telangana in spite of the State being capable in every aspect, he pointed out.
“This is not the first time that the Centre rendered injustice to Telangana. In spite of Telangana allocating suitable land for setting up the World Health Organisation Global Centre for Traditional Medicine (WHO GCTM) in Hyderabad, the union Cabinet backstabbed Telangana and approved its establishment at Jamnagar in Gujarat. This was another project that was launched by the Prime Minister in Gujarat along with the locomotive manufacturing factory,” said Kumar.
The lackadaisical attitude of the Central Government is also evident in the denial of industrial corridors from Hyderabad-Bengaluru, Hyderabad-Warangal, Hyderabad-Vijayawada and Hyderabad-Nagpur along with the defence corridor. At the same time, it failed to allocate sufficient funds for various projects in the State including Kakatiya Mega Textile Park in Warangal, Hyderabad Pharma City and the National Design Centre, he said.
He appealed to the Central Government to encourage progressive States like Telangana with equal opportunities instead of focusing just on already developed States like Gujarat.
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