HYDERABAD: Holding Chief Minister K Chandrasekhar Rao and his family members guilty of not establishing Bayyaram Steel Factory which he said they promised during the 2018 Assembly elections, Union Tourism Minister G Kishan Reddy on Friday reiterated that the Centre had made it clear in 2014 itself that the steel factory in Khammam district was not feasible.
This, he said, was due to the fact that the quality of iron ore present in the area was inferior, and could not compete with the steel produced internationally. Addressing the media in New Delhi, Kishan said that the expert committee comprising higher officials from the Steel Authority of India, which was constituted right after Narendra Modi became the Prime Minister, had told the Centre that setting up a steel factory in Barrayam could mean wasting the taxpayers’ money to establish another sick industry.
He said that a joint task force had also submitted a similar feasibility report to the Centre later, and nobody knows what happened to the report submitted by a committee constituted by the State government in 2018 to study the issue.
“On March 7, 2014, the then Union Steel Minister had stated the same in the Rajya Sabha, and had told both the Houses why the project was not feasible. A legislator had approached the Supreme Court on this issue and the Centre submitted the experts committee report and the petition was dismissed. It can be recalled that even Dr YS Rajasekhara Reddy had made it clear when he was the chief minister that a steel factory at Bayyaram was not feasible,” Kishan said.
The Union Minister showed video clips of Chief Minister K Chandrasekhar Rao and IT Minister KT Rama Rao’s 2018 election campaign in Khammam where they could be seen assuring the people that even if the Centre failed to establish the factory, the State government will go ahead and do it through Singareni and Telangana State Minerals Development Corporation, also assuring creation of 10,000 to 15,000 jobs in erstwhile Khammam and Warangal districts.
“The Centre never made any false promises on Bayyaram Steel Factory, but you have. If you have the guts, do it. Why didn’t KCR demand the steel factory when he was a Union Minister,” Kishan asked.
He said that the State government’s agenda was to criticise and spew venom on Bharatiya Janata Party and Modi, by playing the blame game and spreading lies. “Instead of burning my effigies on the issue, burn the effigies of your party heads who are playing with the emotions of the people,” Kishan told TRS workers.