HYDERABAD: Prime minister Narendra Modi should honour his statement that the country would progress if it stood on the strong pillars of states, chief minister K Chandrasekhar Rao has said. “In the true spirit of federalism, the prime minister should devolve more funds and powers to the states to make the country powerful,” he said. Participating in a conclave held by a private national television channel here on Thursday, Rao said Modi was implementing his suggestions made at Niti Aayog meeting “partially”. The tax devolution to states has gone up and yet Modi has to do a lot of things. “States need more funds and powers,” Rao said.
Speaking on his relations with Modi, he said that he was maintaining “cordial” and “constitutional” relations with the prime minister. Asked about the criticism of his ‘family rule’ in the state, he said that all his family members were elected representatives of the people and not nominated. “In fact, Telangana is my family,” he remarked. Asked if he would move to national politics, Chandrasekhar Rao said that his field of action was Telangana and his emotions were linked with the state. “My aim is to make Telangana number one in the country.” Claiming that TS was number one on several fronts, Rao dismissed the comparison that Gujarat was like a lion and the newly-formed Telangana like a sheep.
“Lion or sheep dose not matter. Who is making fast buck is what matters. TS is making wealth,” the chief minister said. The chief minister also said that by 2020, the state would provide irrigation water to one crore acres of land and would have installed power capacity of 28,000 MW.
On second capital
Asked for his views on the suggestion that Hyderabad be made the second capital of the country, the CM said that Hyderabad was a miniature version of the country. “We have no objection to making Hyderabad the second capital of the country. If the whole India comes to Hyderabad, we have no objection. As many as 17 states, including West Bengal, are smaller than Telangana.” On the farmers’ suicides, Rao said after the completion of three major irrigation projects — Kaleshwaram, Palamuru-Rangareddy and Sitarama — suicides would come down. “We are providing Aasara pensions and subsidised rice without cap to avert situations like suicides,” he said.