The Telangana prime minister is also likely to meet with Prime Minister Modi and several other ministers over the next two days.
Telangana Chief Minister K Chandrasekhar Rao visited Union Interior Minister Amit Shah and Union Minister Jal Shakti Gajendra Singh Shekhawat in New Delhi on Friday. KCR arrived in the national capital for a three-day visit on Friday, and it is understood that it has discussed various state-related issues with Interior Minister and Minister Jal Shakti.
The Chief Minister is believed to have urged Shah to turn over the outstanding funds to the state, especially for relief from the recent floods in Hyderabad. KCR has requested the release of 1,358 million rupees as immediate assistance for the floods facing the state in October. The Chief Minister has also sought funding for the state through the union government’s backward areas development program, The Hindu reported.
The Chief Minister’s meeting with Shekhawat was to request permission to increase the lifting capacity of the Kaleshwaram lift irrigation project from 2 to 3 tmcft per day. The KCR also reportedly asked the Union government to make sure to reduce the height of the Polavaram project. The Telangana government is of the opinion that increasing the height of the dam will affect the flow of water in the Godavari in Bhadrachalam. The KCR has also reportedly raised objections to the Andhra Pradesh government’s Rayalaseema elevation irrigation project, the newspaper reported.
KCR is also likely to meet with Prime Minister Narendra Modi and several other ministers over the next two days. The Chief Minister’s visit to Delhi came a few days after the fierce electoral struggle between the TRS and the BJP over the Greater Hyderabad Municipal Corporation (GHMC) polls.
Amit Shah, who had also campaigned for the BJP in GHMC polls, criticized the TRS chief on various issues. BJP won 48 seats in the 150-member GHMC, reducing TRS’s strength from 99 to 56.
The visit comes at a time when KCR has called a meeting of like-minded party leaders in Hyderabad in the second week of December to build an alternative to the BJP and Congress. The KCR had also stated that it would lead the agitation against the BJP’s anti-farmer policies and divestitures of public sector companies.
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