Telangana Industries Minister KT Rama Rao on Thursday slammed the Union government for making a U-turn on the setting up of the Kazipet Rail Coach Factory. Stating that setting up of a rail coach factory was the constitutional right of Telangana, KTR said that the BJP did not have any right to reject or make a U-turn on the promise made to the state in Parliament.
"Rail coach factory is Telangana's constitutional right and we will fight for our rights with the Centre," said Rama Rao, who is also the working president of Telangana Rashtra Samithi (TRS). KTR, as Rao is popularly known, said that TRS MPs would fight for the rail coach factory in Parliament in the upcoming session.
"The BJP government at the Union government has been doing injustice to Telangana since the formation of the state. The BJP once again exhibited its anti-Telangana stance by failing to fulfill its promise to set up a railway coach factory in the state as promised in the Reorganisation Act," said KTR.
He came down heavily on Union Railway Minister Piyush Goyal who, responding to a recent RTI petition, said that there was no need to set up a railway coach factory in Telangana. KTR said that the Union government already cancelled the Information Technology Investment Region (ITIR) project and thus curbed IT development in Hyderabad.
He strongly condemned the Union government's attitude towards Telangana and said, "Not setting up of the coach factory would be a major injustice done to Warangal and Telangana by the Union government."
The TRS Working President demanded that the Union government immediately change its decision and make a clear statement towards setting up a railway coach factory in Kazipet. He referred to the fact that Chief Minister K Chandrasekhar Rao had personally appealed to Prime Minister Narendra Modi regarding the setting up of the Kazipet Coach Factory and had written several letters.
KTR said that the state government was making all necessary efforts on its behalf to set up a railway coach factory in Telangana. As part of this, the procurement of space for the railway coach factory has also been completed, he added. He also said that very valuable 150 acres of land for the railway coach factory has been specially acquired and handed over to the Railway Department.
He said there was no response from the Union government to Telangana's demands of eight pending railway lines, two new lines, Kazipet Wagon Factory, Kazipet Railway Division, and setting up of Railway University.
The minister said that every time there is a big zero for Telangana in the Budget. He said that even in the latest Budget announced by the Union government for this year, not a single rupee has been allocated for the railways in the state of Telangana.
KTR said that the BJP had done a great injustice to Telangana with regard to the bullet train and high-speed railways which the Union government boasted of. The non-allocation of these trains to a metropolis like Hyderabad is a testament to BJP's discrimination towards Telangana, he said.
KTR said the Union government was making a concerted effort to fully privatise the Indian Railways. It had already identified the 12 busiest clusters across the country and decided to hand over 109 major railway lines to private companies, which could cost the railways about Rs 63,000 crore in annual revenue.
He warned that with the privatisation of railways, the future of millions of youth in the country is going to be bleak, as there won't be new job notifications from the Railways, the largest employer in the country.