Hyderabad: Union defence minister Manohar Parrikar was in Hyderabad for two days to attend official programmes but there was no meeting between him and Chief Minister K. Chandrasekhar Rao. Mr Chandrasekhar Rao even skipped the lunch hosted by Governor E.S.L. Narasimhan at Raj Bhavan on Saturday for Mr Parrikar.
The CM did not attend the ground-breaking ceremony of the Tata Boeing Aerospace facility at Adibatla on city outskirts. Interestingly, both these programmes were attended by his son, IT minister K.T. Rama Rao. Reports say Mr Chandrasekhar Rao is upset with the minister for not responding positively to the requests made by the state government on the closure of Cantonment roads and shifting the cantonments to the outskirts.
The issue of land at the Parade Ground for the Secretariat is another bugbear. The two did not meet in October last year when Mr Parrikar was in the city to rename DRDO after late former President A.P.J. Abdul Kalam. The reports of CM and Mr Parrikar not being in good terms are doing the rounds since then.
The CMO subsequently made several attempts to arrange a meeting between the two in New Delhi to discuss the closure of AOC roads. It is learnt that Mr Parrikar did not give the CM an appointment. Regarding their stand-off during Mr Parrikar’s current visit, CMO sources cited Mr Chandrasekhar Rao’s “prior engagements”. The CM spent Friday reviewing the functioning of the RTC, and was confined to his camp office on Saturday.
