Telangana Chief Minister to demand Andhra Pradesh-like special status for his state

Hyderabad: Telangana Chief Minister K. Chandrasekhar Rao will seek special status for the new state and incentives on par with Andhra Pradesh when he calls on Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Saturday. The controversial Polavaram issue, the Centre’s support for reconstruction of Telangana in various sectors, including pending irrigation projects, power, infrastructure, and tourism, will also be on Mr Rao’s agenda during his first visit to New Delhi after becoming the Chief Minister.

KCR has a hectic schedule in the national capital that includes courtesy and business calls to President Pranab Mukherjee, the Prime Minister, Home minister Rajnath Singh, Union finance Minister Arun Jaitley, and urban development minister Venkaiah Naidu. The Chief Minister will also invite Mr Modi to the official Telangana Formation Day celebrations later this month.

“Telangana fits the bill for special status since nine out of 10 districts are listed in the Backward Regions Grant Fund (BRGF) programme of the Central Government. AP has only four such districts out of 13. CM will request the Prime Minister to provide special status to Telangana in this regard,” said B. Vinod Kumar, TRS deputy leader in the Lok Sabha and politburo member.

The BRGF is designed to redress regional imbalances in development. The fund provides financial resources for supplementing and converging existing developmental inflows into identified districts.
Nine districts that qualify for BRGF are Adilabad, Karimnagar, Nalgonda, Warangal, Khammam, Nizamabad, Mahbubnagar, Ranga Reddy and Medak. The four AP districts are Anantapur, Chittoor, Kadapa and Vizianagaram.

Mr Chandrasekhar Rao is apprehensive of the flight of industrialists to Andhra Pradesh, which has been promised special incentives. Hence he is eager to get the Prime Minister to announce special incentives for Telangana on par with Andhra Pradesh even though incentives have been listed in the AP Reorganisation Bill. “Telangana will get incentives in income tax, corporate tax, service tax and central excise duty if it is provided to Andhra Pradesh. We will also raise the issue of Polavaram and joint capital of Hyderabad,” Mr Kumar added.