NEW DELHI: Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Monday congratulated the people of Telangana and its first Chief Minister K. Chandrasekhar Rao while assuring “complete support” to take the state to “newer heights of progress”.
Though no representative from the Union government was invited to the swearing-in ceremony of Mr Chandrasekhar Rao in Hyderabad, Mr Modi and his Cabinet colleague Rajnath Singh took to Twitter early in the morning to welcome India’s 29th state.
“India gets a new state! We welcome Telangana as our 29th state. Telangana will add strength to our development journey in the coming years,” the PM tweeted.
Recalling the sacrifices made by the people of Telangana, Mr Modi said that Telangana’s birth came after years of struggle and sacrifices by many. “We pay our respects to them today,” he tweeted.
The PM also congratulated Mr Rao as he took over as the first CM of Telangana. “My best wishes to people for the state’s development journey,” he said.
Mr Modi assured the Union government’s “complete support to the people and government of Telangana in taking the state to newer heights of progress.”
Union home minister Rajnath Singh also congratulated Mr Rao. Meanwhile, home ministry officials, who have been involved in the process of bifurcation of Andhra Pradesh, were surprised when the new Telangana government did not invite any of the officials for the swearing in ceremony.
Congress president Sonia Gandhi also congratulated the people of Telangana. In a message, she noted that the movement of creation of Telangana had a long history and “it was the Congress that finally decided to reorganise the state of Andhra Pradesh in 2013 to fulfil the democratic aspirations of the people of Telangana.”
Meanwhile, the Union government started devolving funds to Telangana from Monday. As per the 13th Finance Commission’s recommendation, the share of states in the Central divisible pool is devolved to the states on every first working day of the month.
“Telangana state has come into existence today vide Andhra Pradesh Re-organisation Act, 2014. Hence, the share of the erstwhile state of AP has been apportioned between the successor states and devolved to them separately,” an official release from the home ministry stated.
