New Delhi: Telangana Chief Minister K Chandrashekar Rao has started seeing himself as a “Nizam” of his state who has no interest in solving its people’s problems, the BJP alleged on Saturday, attacking the TRS leader for his boycott of a NITI Aayog meeting.
Union minister Piyush Goyal termed as “unfortunate” Rao’s decision not to attend the Sunday meeting and alleged that it had exposed his political thought of having no interest in the country’s and the state’s development agenda.
In a letter to Prime Minister Narendra Modi, who will chair the Aayog’s governing council meeting, Rao said he will boycott the event in a strong protest against the Centre’s “discrimination” towards states.
The council, the apex body of NITI Aayog, includes all chief ministers, lieutenant governors of Union Territories and several Union ministers. The prime minister is its chairperson.
Hitting out at Rao, Goyal said he considers himself “so big” that he does not have any interest in such an important meeting related to Prime Minister Modi’s agenda of making the country and states prosperous.
The TRS leader, he noted, had also not attended a meeting of the prime minister with chief ministers on the COViD-19 situation and did not receive Modi during his visits to Telangana in breach of protocol.
In a swipe at the Telangana Rashtra Samithi (TRS) leader, Goyal said Rao may have decided to skip the meeting, where other chief ministers will be present, because of embarrassment at his party’s loss to the BJP in some important assembly bypolls.
The BJP leader asked him to reconsider his decision and asserted that the government under Modi is committed towards the Centre and states working together for the country’s development.
He noted that the Telangana government failed to withdraw the amount allocated to it by the Jal Shakti ministry.
The Niti Aayog has said Rs 3982 core was allocated to the state in the last four years under the Jal Jeevan Mission, but it chose to draw only Rs 200 crore.
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