Hyderabad: A month ahead of the first anniversary of Telangana's creation, a key minister in the TRS government K Taraka Rama Rao is miffed at the Narendra Modi government for being "more generous" to Andhra Pradesh ruled by NDA ally TDP.
"The Centre took almost nine months to give Telangana its share of IAS officers. The bifurcation of the high court has still not happened, while division of state employees by a Centre-appointed committee is yet to be completed," Rao, son of TRS chief and Telangana Chief Minister K Chandrasekhar Rao, said.
"If central government was a little more helpful, we could have done a lot better," he told PTI.
The TRS government completes one year in office on June 2, the day the new state carved out of Andhra Pradesh was born.
Rao, the state's Panchayati Raj and Information Technology Minister, also feels the "friction" between Telangana and the residual state of Andhra Pradesh over issues like river water sharing is "natural".
"There are issues between Karnataka and Tamil Nadu, between Maharashtra and (the then undivided) Andhra Pradesh. This is not unnatural or out of the world. When a process like this (bifurcation) happens, there is bound to be some fallout. We (Telangana government) have behaved in much more matured fashion than expected," he said.
The minister said when Andhra Pradesh was reeling under the impact of cyclonic storm Hudhud last year, Telangana "went out of the way" to support it by supplying electrical equipment worth Rs 20 crore.
"That's the kind of state Telangana is. We want good relations with all our neighbours. It (friction) is a natural progression that happened after the bifurcation. I don't see anything unnatural (in this)," he said.
KTR, as Rao is fondly called, said an urbanised Telangana, which has 41.6 per cent of its population living in cities and towns, does not see residual Andhra Pradesh as a competitor.
"I would not draw a comparison with Andhra Pradesh. If we have to compete, its Gujarat, Maharashtra, Karnataka and Tamil Nadu. These are the states we are competing against," he said.
KTR said the government was satisfied with its performance in the first year and said one of the achievements was that the state, which started out with a power deficit, is now able to supply uninterrupted electricity to industries, the agriculture sector and domestic consumers during peak summer.
"There were several doomsday predictions about Telangana, especially by N Kiran Kumar Reddy, the last chief minister of undivided Andhra Pradesh. The only person whose future turned out to be bleak is none other than Kiran Kumar Reddy himself," he said, adding "Telangana's present is good, Telangana's future is bright."
Asked about the proposed visit of Congress Vice President Rahul Gandhi to Telangana later this month to meet distressed farmers, he said Congress has neared its "expiry date".
"Congress is a party that has almost reached its expiry date. It's like a medicine, which has reached its expiry date.
People of this country are fed up with it. I don't think Congress has any hopes in Telangana, no matter how hard they try, how hard Rahul Gandhi tries," he said.
