Harish Rao Asks AP leaders To Fight For Special Status, VSP

Hitting out at AP leaders once again for "making a hue and cry over his statement", Telangana Minister for Finance T Harish Rao said that instead of criticising him, the neighbouring State's leaders should focus on achieving special category status and obstructing the privatisation of the Visakhapatnam Steel Plant (VSP).

Addressing the BRS' Aatmeeya Sammelanam program at Siddipet today, the minister said that he had never spoken against the people of Andhra Pradesh, and had only reminded their leaders about the importance of special category status and blocking the privatising of the VSP.

Rao claimed that whatever he had spoken was on behalf of the AP people, but some leaders from AP were unnecessarily finding fault with his statement.

"What was wrong with my statement about Andhra Pradesh? I have explained the greatness of Telangana compared to the neighbouring State on the irrigation front. The Telangana government is providing irrigation facility to lakhs of acres by constructing the Kaleshwaram Lift Irrigation Project, and I asked the AP leaders to likewise take the initiative for the completion of the Polavaram project," Rao said.

Claiming that Telangana was witnessing unprecedented progress in the agriculture sector, the minister said that the crop cultivation area in the State during the Yasangi season was about 56 lakh acres.

"Except Telangana, no State in India is providing such irrigation facilites or implementing such farmer-friendly policies," Rao said.