U-turn on Kazipet coach factory will be injustice to Telangana: KTR
Hyderabad: Lashing out at the Union government for brushing aside the need for setting up a railway coach factory in Kazipet, TRS working president and MAUD Minister K T Rama Rao on Thursday said the establishment of the factory was a constitutional right of Telangana State. “The BJP government does not have any right to reject or take a U-turn on the promise made to Telangana State in the Parliament. We will fight for our rights,” he said.
Stating that the issue would be taken up by party MPs in Parliament in the upcoming session, Rama Rao warned the BJP government that the TRS was ready to take up any movement to safeguard the interests of Telangana State. He demanded that the Centre immediately revise its decision and make a clear statement on setting up the Kazipet factory.
The Minister, who slammed the Railway’s response to a recent RTI petition stating that there was no need to set up a Railway Coach Factory in Telangana, said that since State formation, the BJP government had been doing injustice to Telangana. “It has once again exhibited its anti-Telangana stance by failing to fulfill its promise of setting up a railway coach factory in the State as was assured in the Reorganisation Act,” the TRS working president pointed out.
Pointing out that the Central government had already cancelled the ITIR project and had now made its intentions clear by scrapping the Kazipet Rail Coach Factory project, Rama Rao condemned the Central government’s attitude towards Telangana. “Not setting up the coach factory will be major injustice to Warangal and Telangana,” he added.
He reminded that Chief Minister K. Chandrashekhar Rao had personally appealed to Prime Minister Narendra Modi to set up the Kazipet coach factory, besides writing several letters. The State government, on its behalf, was making all necessary arrangements for setting up the railway coach factory in Telangana and had also procured land required for the railway coach factory.
Over 150 acres of land was specially acquired and handed over to the Central Railway Department towards the Railway Coach Factory, the Minister said.
Despite several consultations on projects announced for Telangana, there has been no response from the BJP covernment at the Centre, he said. “Telangana has been demanding about eight pending railway lines, two new lines, Kazipet wagon factory, Kazipet Railway Division and setting up of Railway University,” he said.
The Minister also accused the Centre of indulging in discrimination in allocation of funds to the State in the Union budget. “Even in the latest budget, not a single rupee has been allocated for railway projects in Telangana State,” he pointed out.
Regarding announcement of bullet train and high-speed trains, the BJP government has meted out great injustice to Telangana. “Depriving a bullet or speed train to a metropolis like Hyderabad shows BJP’s discrimination towards Telangana,” Rama Rao said.
Reiterating that the Centre was making concerted efforts to privatise railways, the Minister said the Centre had already identified 12 busy clusters across the country and decided to hand over 109 major railway lines to private companies, which could cost the railways about Rs.63,000 crore annually. “Privatization of railways will affect millions of youth as there will be no new job notifications from Railways, the largest employer in the country,” Rama Rao said.
He also demanded that Telangana BJP leaders, who were raising a hue and cry over government jobs in the State, respond to the railway privatisation issue in the same tone and tenor. The Central government, he said, was keen on privatising Railways but does not respond to land allotment requests made by the Telangana government for construction of double bedroom houses and for executing road widening works.
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