KCR Meet PM, Returns To Hyderabad

Telangana Chief Minister K Chandrashekar Rao today returned to Hyderabad after a three-day trip to the national capital, after meeting Prime Minister Narendra Modi and several union ministers to apprise them of the developmental issues in the state.

During his 45-minute meeting with the PM, Rao appealed to him to support the completion of the pending developmental projects of the state, and requested him to accord national status to either the Palamur-Rangareddy lift irrigation project or the Kaleshwaram lift irrigation project, claiming that both were of critical importance to the state's farmers.

Besides this, he also urged the PM to sanction and support the establishment of six new domestic airports in the Peddapally, Warangal, Bhadradri Kothagudem, Adilabad, Nizamabad and Mahabubnagar districts, and an international airport in Siddipet district, and said that this would be an important step towards providing the people of the state access to better air travel facilities.

The CM also appealed to Modi to raise the state's fiscal deficit cap under the Fiscal Responsibility and Budget Management Act in order to enable it to obtain more loans towards development.

KCR also urged the PM to release funds worth Rs 24,000 crore to the Telangana government as per the recommendations of the Niti Aayog to propel growth and welfare in the state, and also to clear the state's GST arrears.

On a different note, Rao then invited the PM to establish a new pharma city on the outskirts of the state capital.

It is being reported that the CM also brought up the issue of the ongoing farmers' protests, and discussed the three contentious farm Acts that have sparked the protests.

For those who came in late, the CM was in Delhi for the past three days to hold meetings with key union ministers, including Amit Shah and Gajendra Singh Shekhawat, to seek permissions and funds for various development projects in Telangana.

This visit is especially significant as the TRS and the BJP had recently clashed bitterly over the GHMC elections, and the saffron party's increased vote share had dented the TRS' vote share appreciably.