Telangana Wants to Compete with AP in Seeking Central Aid

Hyderabad: Following a slew of financial benefits showered on Andhra Pradesh by Union Finance Arun Jaitley, the Telangana government wants to compete with it in seeking central aid.

On Thursday, Minister for IT and Industries K T Rama Rao put forth a list of demands during his meeting with Finance Minister Arun Jaitley in New Delhi. He sought Rs 50 crore financial assistance from Union Finance Ministry per year for five years for each of the backward districts in the State. Rao also requested Jaitley to release Rs 24,500 crore for Mission Bhagiratha and Mission Kakatiya projects (related to irrigation and rural development) as they had been already cleared by NITI Aayog, it said. The Minister requested Arun Jaitley to help Telangana on lines with Andhra Pradesh. Not doing so would otherwise send wrong signals to public (that the Centre is helping only AP), it said.

He requested the Centre to implement all promises made in the AP Reorganisation Act in letter and spirit, the statement added.
The State, which came into existence in June 2014, has 10 districts, but the statement did not say how many of them fall under the backward category.

The Rao-Jaitley meeting came a day after the Centre announced a financial package for Andhra Pradesh that includes full funding of Pollavaram irrigation project, tax concessions and a special assistance, but stopped short of giving the state a special category status.

PTI