Hyderabad: Attacking the Centre over lack of support, Telangana IT minister K T Rama Rao on Friday said that an ‘Atma Nirbhar’ (self-reliant) India won’t happen by “sloganeering”. He appealed to the central government to work together with the state, and “let economics take over politics”.
“We have allotted 12,000 acres of pharma land (for Pharma City) but there is no assistance from the Modi government,” KTR claimed, while addressing a meeting by CII Telangana on Friday in Hyderabad. He appealed to the Centre to work with the state government and put politics aside.
The IT minister’s comments come during the ongoing campaign for the MLC (two seats) elections. Over the past few days, he and Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) state president Bandi Sanjay were involved in a war of words over the Information Technology and Investment Region (ITIR). The IT minister asked Sanjay to apologise to the people for failing to bring ITIR here.
KTR also complained that despite Hyderabad being the “vaccine capital” of the world, producing 39% of all the vaccines, the state still has to sent it 1200 kilometres away to a”storeroom”, or the facility where the COVID-19 vaccines are being sold.
“Why can’t they just provide us with a facility?” he questioned. Addressing the CII Telangana conference on ”T-NEXT,” he took a shot at the Centre saying, “Make in India bolne se kuch nai hota (Nothing will happen just by saying make India),” and stressed on the fact that the Centre has to support the industrial sector too.
He however hit a reconciliatory note as well, and asked the Centre to work with the state government as well. KTR said that politics has to be put aside as there are still three years for the state elections.