Telangana BJP leaders on Friday sought that Warangal and Hyderabad be included in the list of “smart cities” that the Modi Government wanted to develop across the country.
BJP State president G Kishan Reddy said that they have also urged the Central Ministers to set up a Skill Development Centre at Hyderabad besides a Tribal and Horticulture university in Telangna. Skill development is also one of the priority areas , mentioned in the BJP’s lok Sabha poll manifesto.The Telangana BJP leaders on Thursday and Friday met about a dozen of Central Ministers including Home Minister Rajnath Singh, urban development Minister M Venkaiah Naidu and transport Minister Nitin Gadkari and pressed for speedy resolution of the pending issues following the bifurcation of Andhra Pradesh.
The concept of creating “smart cities” with modern infrastructure having ready communication, road, train and air connectivity has been aggressively pushed by the BJP Government, particularly along the Mumbai-Delhi industrial corridor being developed with the Japanese cooperation.Reddy said their request for selecting Warangal and Hyderabad as ‘smart cities’ has been given encouraging response by the Ministers they met during last two-days. They also wanted a Central Cotton research institute at Warangal.
Singapore’s K Shanmugam this week offered assistance to fulfill Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s “dream” of building smart cities in India. Dhanmugam has also met Telangana Chief Minister K Chandrashekar Rao.
The BJP’s Telangana delegation led by Reddy and State vice-president GP Reddy- both MlAs in State Assembly - met Rajnath, Gadkari, Naidu, Commerce Minister Nirmala Seetharaman, HRD Minister Smiriti Irani, Water Resources Minister Uma Bharti, Petroleum Minister Dharmendra Pradhan, Environment Minister Prakash Javadekar, Textile Minister Santosh Gangwar and Power Minister Piush Goel.
Asked whether they sought any central help on the power front, vice-president of Telangna BJP said, “We asked Power Minister that the unallocated power from NTPC be given to Telangna as the State was running a deficit of 4,000 MW.” The issue of Polavaram project and Godavari barricade was raised during their interactions with the Ministers.While they hoped that the State Government would be separately taking up various issues with the Centre, the BJP would play “a pro-active role” as an Opposition and move the Rao dispensation to work hard to fulfill aspirations of people of Telangana, said Reddy.