Hyderabd: TRS president and Chief Minister K. Chandrashekar Rao will chair the party’s Parliamentary Party meeting at Pragathi Bhavan on Sunday to chalk out a strategy to step up pressure on the Centre in the upcoming Budget Session of Parliament to secure funds owed to the state, projects that have to be given and fulfilment of promises made during state bifurcation.
The TRS has nine members in the Lok Sabha and seven in the Rajya Sabha. All the party MPs barring Rajya Sabha member D. Srinivas, who has been maintaining a distance from the TRS, have been asked to attend the meeting without fail.
The CM and individual ministers have written a series of letters to Union finance minister Nirmala Sitharaman over the past month seeking funds and projects for the state in the Union Budget 2022-23.
Ministers K.T. Rama Rao, T. Harish Rao and Satyavathi Rathod have written to Nirmala Sitharaman and other Union ministers seeking nearly Rs 60,000 crore to Telangana in the Budget. Former MP B. Vinod Kumar wrote to the railway minister seeking completion of pending projects and announcing of new lines for the state.
Rama Rao sought Rs 22,757 crore for his departments which include Rs 7,800 crore for urban development, Rs 954 crore for textiles and handlooms, Rs 14,000 crore for Hyderabad Pharma City, besides seeking revival of Hyderabad ITIR project, national project status to either Kaleshwaram or Palamuru Ranga Reddy lift irrigation scheme.
Harish Rao sought Rs 5,205 crore for Mission Kakatiya, Rs 19,000 crore to Mission Bhagiratha as recommended by Niti Aayog, Rs 723 crore special grant, Rs 495 crore CSS funds diverted to AP in 2014-15, IGST arrears Rs 210 crore, local bodies grants Rs 817 crore, BRDF arrears 900 crore.
Vinod Kumar sought Rs 10,000 crore for pending railway projects. Satyavathi Rathod sought national festival status to the Medaram Jatara, which will be held in February, and sanction Rs 300 crore.
This apart, the state government is demanding that the Centre fulfill promises made to Telangana in AP Reorganisation Act, 2014, such as setting up of a tribal university, the Bayyaram steel factory, Kazipet railway coach factory etc and announce them in the Union Budget.
Party sources said the CM will hand over separate reports to each MP on these issues in the meeting and ask them to raise their voice in Parliament to achieve these demands.
The CM will guide MPs on the strategies to be followed in both the Houses to secure the rights of Telangana in the Union Budget.
