VIJAYAWADA: TDP MPs on Thursday staged a protest outside Union Minister of Steel Chaudhary Birender Singh’s residence in New Delhi chanting “we want justice”, mellowing down only after they were given an appointment with the BJP leader.
They failed to extract any positive response from him on setting up a steel plant in Kadapa despite holding talks for the second consecutive day. Singh spoke to fasting MP CM Ramesh over the phone and requested him to call off his hunger strike which had entered the ninth day, but the TDP leader refused to budge until the Centre gave its word on setting up the plant.
He is understood to have asked the Steel Minister to take a call on the matter within two days or “risk seeing me dead”. The TDP leader’s doctors have advised that he be moved to the ICU as his health condition was deteriorating.
Reasoning with the Union Minister, the TDP MPs explained that the state government had fulfilled all responsibilities on its part and appealed to him to make a formal announcement on setting up the proposed steel plant in Kadapa.
The Minister replied that MECON would draft a report and a Task Force would finalise it, following which the government would take a call.“As of now, I am aware that MECON sought clarifications on land and linkage and they are yet to get a reply from the state government. But the MPs say the AP government has already submitted all the details. If that is the case, MECON may come out with their final draft report,” the Union Steel Minister said.
“It will then be taken up in the Task Force meeting. Based on the recommendation of the Task Force, we will take a decision,’’ the Union Minister said. Refuting allegations that the Centre was stalling the setting up of the plant, he said, “If that is true, what is the need for us to explore the possibility of setting up the plant for the third time?” Anantapur MP JC Diwakar Reddy begged to differ. “Despite the state government having readied 3,000 acres of land as against the required 1800 acres, MECON sought 500 acres of private land to delay the project. The state government agreed to that too and sought ` 4 lakh per acre from the Centre, saying it would bear additional costs.
Municipal Administration Minister P Narayana, said Chief Minister N Chandrababu Naidu would meet him on Saturday. The day also saw a clash between workers of the TDP and the BJP in Anantapur district when the yellow party’s leaders tried to stage a protest at the R&B guest house where BJP state president Kanna Lakshminarayana was holding a meeting. Kanna said the clash was choreographed by the TDP with an intention to harm him.