SIDDIPET: Finance Minister T Harish Rao said on Thursday that all sectors had been severely neglected in undivided Andhra Pradesh, but now Telangana was making progress.“Water, electricity, fishing, agriculture… everything is abundant in Telangana now,” the minister said.
He was speaking during his visit to various parts of the Siddipet Assembly constituency on Thursday. Harish Rao participated in various events throughout the day. He claimed that Telangana had become a development model in all fields. Not only that, the minister said, the State was becoming a food bowl for South India.
Harish Rao said that the country’s agriculture growth rate stood at 4 per cent. “Whereas in Telangana, it has risen to 7.8 per cent. “After the construction of the Kaleshwaram project in Telangana, the cultivation of sunflowers increased to 6,200 acres, and the agriculture department officials have estimated an annual harvest of 60 metric tonnes of sunflower in the district.”
The minister added that in undivided Andhra Pradesh, land under paddy cultivation was less than 10 lakh acres due to a lack of irrigation water. “Today, in Telangana, 53 lakh acres are under paddy cultivation,” the minister said. He said this was more than Uttar Pradesh, Tamil Nadu, Andhra Pradesh, and Madhya Pradesh, despite those States being much bigger than Telangana.