Telangana vs Centre Over Funds, BJP Claims Pressure Of Poll Promises

The Telangana government's tussle with the Centre over fund allocations and disbursal continues. A political slugfest has now erupted between the Congress and the BJP over the projects pending with the Centre and claims that it is not releasing adequate funds.

Chief Minister Revanth Reddy recently alleged that Union Minister for Coal and Mines G Kishan Reddy was blocking state projects. His allegation came on February 26 after meeting Prime Minister Narendra Modi to seek the Centre's approval for upcoming infrastructure projects in the state.

When Kishan Reddy challenged Revanth Reddy to prove his allegation, the Chief Minister claimed that the Union Minister, who is also from Telangana, blocked the Centre's approval for the second phase of the Hyderabad Metro. He alleged that Kishan Reddy did not want him to get the credit for the project.

The Chief Minister also claimed that the Union Minister was trying to help his predecessor and BRS leader K Chandrasekhar Rao.

Denying the allegation, Kishan Reddy accused the Congress government in the state of not cooperating with the Centre in implementing various schemes. The BJP leader also claimed that the Chief Minister was making baseless allegations against him to divert public attention from the failures of his government in delivering on the promises made during the assembly elections.

"The Congress wants Centre to implement six guarantees and 420 promises made by it in Assembly elections," remarked Kishan Reddy, who is also the BJP's state president.

He also said the BJP's victory in two of three MLC seats from graduates' and teachers' constituencies was the people's verdict against the Chief Minister's baseless allegation.

Amid this war of words, the state cabinet convened a meeting of all MPs from the state to discuss pending projects and funds due from the Centre, and to devise a strategy to take those up with the Centre and raise them in the Parliament.

Deputy Chief Minister Mallu Bhatti Vikramarka personally invited the MPs of all parties, including Kishan Reddy and the Union Minister of State for Home Affairs, to the meeting. But both BJP and BRS stayed away from the meeting held on March 8.

Besides Congress MPs, only AIMIM president Asaduddin Owaisi attended the meeting. No other party MPs turned up.

The meeting was a strategic move by the Congress to show that the BJP and BRS have no interest in taking up the state issues with the Centre. The state government has also published a booklet with the details of the pending projects and funds due from the Centre.

The meeting discussed a proposal to move an adjournment motion in Parliament over the state issues.

Mr Vikramarka said BRS acted with negligence for the last 10 years, and though they have been making all efforts for the last year, the Centre was not cooperating. "The state is suffering from a lack of necessary funding and approval of projects by the Centre," said Mr Vikramarka, who is also the minister for finance and energy.

According to him, several issues, including the establishment of a steel plant, railway coach factory, and other promises made under the Andhra Pradesh Reorganisation Act 2014, are still pending with the Centre.

In January, he wrote to Kishan Reddy to request the Centre's support for several projects in Telangana that are crucial to the state's progress. The total request for these projects amounted to Rs 1,63,559.31 crore.

Hours before the March 8 meeting, Kishan Reddy had sent a letter to the deputy chief minister, stating that the BJP MPs were unable to attend due to prior commitments and the short notice at which the meeting was convened.

While the meeting of MPs was on, Kishan Reddy held a press conference in Hyderabad and alleged that the Revanth Reddy government wants to foot the bill for implementing the promises made by Congress in the assembly elections.

Stating that the Congress need not tell the BJP what to do to protect the state's interests, he claimed that the Centre spent Rs 10 lakh crore in the last decade for the state's development.

(Except for the headline, this story has not been edited by NDTV staff and is published from a syndicated feed.)