HYDERABAD: While Chief Minister K Chandrasekhar Rao made his point by skipping Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s entire five-hour tour of Hyderabad on Saturday, TRS supporters and leaders staged a protest with a huge banner on the Tank Bund, asking about “Equality for Telangana” while several Ministers took to Twitter to lambast the Centre for rendering injustice to the State.
With over 20,000 tweets, retweets and mentions, the hashtag ‘#EqualityForTelangana’ was trending at the No. 1 position on Twitter through Saturday at a time Modi was in the city for his scheduled programmes.
Netizens demanded that the Prime Minister explain as to why Telangana had been ignored when it came to allocations of funds or national status to its projects. A few ministers and public representatives also tweeted the issues pertaining to their subject and constituencies.
Panchayat Raj Minister Errabelli Dayakar Rao tweeted: “Sir, What does the Union government do with all the letters and representations given by Telangana Ministers? Very curious to know. There is no reply to our requests, at least answer this sir. #EqualityForTelangana (sic)”.
Agriculture Minister Singireddy Niranjan Reddy in his tweet asked why the Centre wasn’t supporting agriculture and industrial sectors in Telangana.
Nat’l status for project sought
Using the same hashtag, Excise Minister V Srinivas Goud questioned the Union government as to why it wouldn’t allocate national status to the Palamuru Rangareddy project when it allocated a national project status to Karnataka’s Upper Bhadra project.
Tribal Welfare Minister Satyavathi Rathod questioned Modi why the Union government was reluctant in recognising Medaram Sammakka Saralamma jatara as a ‘national festival’.
TRS MP Gaddam Ranjith Reddy tweeted: “Whatever #Telangana achieved until today is all because of the visionary leadership of CM #KCR. Why so unwilling to support a progressive State like Telangana ? I demand #EqualityForTelangana (sic)”.
In a video that went viral, a group of youngsters was seen holding a flexi seeking answers from the Prime Minister on job creation, ITIR for Telangana, rail coach factory, turmeric board, Bayyaram Steel Factory and IIM.