Continuing his attacks on the Centre, Telangana’s industry minister K. T. Rama Rao said on Friday that it has been doing injustice to Telangana since its inception.
Though Telangana has been performing well in all the sectors, the Centre neither supported the state, nor allotted funds for projects.
Rama Rao stated this while addressing the annual meeting of the Confederation of Indian Industry (CII) Telangana Council.
KTR, as Rao is popularly known, mentioned that revolutionary policies like TS-iPASS succeeded in attracting major investments to the state. Through this policy, 15,000 companies were set up, creating about 15 lakh jobs in the region. A total of about Rs. 2,00,000 crore investment was brought to the State through TS-iPass. Many states have emulated this policy, he added.
“In the past six years, the Telangana Government has received recognition from across the world for its innovative and progressive policies. Though many global companies in IT, Pharma, Life Sciences, Aerospace and Defence sectors have invested in Telangana, the Centre never encouraged the State,” said KTR.
He pointed out that Telangana has been among the top states in the Ease of Doing Business ranks consecutively for the past six years. The state has topped the GSDP growth in the country.
KTR, who is the son of Chief Minister K. Chandrasekhar Rao, said that whenever union ministers come to Telangana, they praise the welfare and development of the state but never give funds.
He alleged that BJP-led NDA Government failed to fulfil the assurances given to Telangana under the Andhra Pradesh Reorganisation Act, 2014.
Promises made to Telangana such as setting up a steel plant, a railway coach factory and educational institutions have been completely ignored. The Centre has once again demonstrated its opposition to Telangana when it announced that establishment of Kazipet Railway Coach Factory is not even necessary.
Apart from this, the Centre is not responding to the requests of Telangana to strengthen the railway network which is vital for industrial development. The construction of eight railway lines is already pending while the survey of another three lines is also yet to begin.
Despite the Telangana government’s assurance about providing all kinds of assistance, there is no response from the Centre on setting up the Bayyaram Steel Factory.
KTR, who also holds the portfolio of information technology, said the Centre also cancelled the Information Technology and Investment Region (ITIR) for Hyderabad which was sanctioned before the formation of the state. This has stifled the growth of the IT industry, investments and job creation.
Though there was an overwhelming response to the two electronic manufacturing clusters (EMCs) set up in Hyderabad, the Centre has not yet decided on Telangana’s request of setting up an additional EMC.
With an ambitious goal of taking the country’s pharma and life sciences sector to a global level, Telangana initiated the Hyderabad Pharma City project, the largest single pharma cluster. However, there is no support from the central government which adopted the ‘Atma Nirbhar Bharat,’ slogan. The Centre did not respond to Telangana’s repeated requests for fund allocation of Rs 3,900 crore for Pharma City infrastructure, he said.
The Central Government, instead of extending help to Pharma City, introduced a new scheme called Pharma Park Scheme which created an unnecessary competition among 19 states and wasted valuable time, he alleged.
Despite having an excellent aerospace and defense ecosystem in Hyderabad, Telangana has not been allotted any of the Defence Industrial Corridors initiated by the Centre. “Bundelkhand in Uttar Pradesh, which has no ecosystem, has been given a defence corridor. This proves that the BJP Government is giving priority to politics over industrial development. Repeated requests to allot the Defence Industrial Corridor to Telangana, which has all the infrastructure, were ignored.”
The Centre had announced a Mega cluster policy under which the Telangana Government requested for assistance in developing Kakatiya Mega Textile Park but there was no response.
He pointed out that the Centre never responded when asked for setting up of a dry port in Telangana. In spite of not having a sea port, Telangana’s export rate is more than the national average. When compared to 2019-20, Telangana in 2020-21 has seen 15.5% growth in exports. Telangana plays a key role in exports, yet the center remained unwilling in setting up a dry port.
