PM Modi’s Telangana visit was highly disappointing: Uttam

Hyderabad: Congress MP N. Uttam Kumar Reddy expressed his disappointment over Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s visit to Telangana on Saturday, as the Prime Minister did not announce any significant projects for the state.

Uttam Kumar Reddy pointed out that most projects inaugurated by PM Modi had already been announced years ago and were significantly delayed. Instead of acknowledging these delays, Modi treated them as if they were new initiatives. For example, the AIIMS Bibinagar project, approved four years ago, has faced delays due to the negligence of Modi’s government. Rather than apologizing for the delay, PM Modi ceremoniously laid the foundation stone again without providing a completion deadline.

He highlighted that AIIMS Bibinagar was approved by the Union Cabinet on December 17, 2018, with Rs. 1,028 crores allocated for the project. Only Rs. 31.71 crore has been released so far. The project’s original completion deadline of September 2022 has been extended multiple times, most recently to January 2025. However, the Centre has remained silent on the current deadline.

The delay in constructing AIIMS Bibinagar has been raised numerous times between November 2019 and December 2021. Despite the Centre acknowledging the delays and providing updated deadlines, Uttam Kumar Reddy noted that only a small fraction of the allocated funds have been spent on the project.

Furthermore, Reddy stated that the BJP government has not taken steps to fill sanctioned positions within AIIMS Bibinagar, leaving many faculty and non-faculty posts vacant.

The Congress MP also accused the BJP government of deliberate discrimination against Telangana. While the Andhra Pradesh Reorganisation Act mandated the establishment of an AIIMS in both Telangana and Andhra Pradesh, the Centre has released more than 50% of allocated funds for 14 out of 16 AIIMS across the country, but only a fraction of the funds for Telangana’s AIIMS.

“PM Modi recently pledged to spend Rs. 1,366 crores on AIIMS Bibinagar’s construction but did not provide an explanation for the project’s delays. Additionally, he did not address other unfulfilled promises such as the Railway Coach Factory at Qazipet, the Steel Plant at Bayyaram, and other assurances given to Telangana in the Andhra Pradesh Reorganisation Act, 2014,” he said.