Union Minister of State for Tourism G. Kishan Reddy has said that the bad blood between Telangana and Central governments over the controversy around paddy procurement owed itself to defeat of TRS in the byelection to Huzurabad Assembly constituency.
If the TRS had won the election, the situation would have been different, Mr. Reddy told a media interaction here on Sunday.
He blamed the State government for not attending a meeting convened by the Centre to discuss the action plan for paddy procurement some months ago. Telangana was the only State that was not represented at the meeting. Nonetheless, an agreement signed by the State last year not to supply boiled rice to the Food Corporation of India was the root cause of the Centre’s refusal to lift stocks from the State.
Even in the case of raw rice over which the Centre had no reservations, the State government was yet to meet its quota of last year. The Centre repeatedly reminded the State to fulfill the target but to no avail.
He said it was not only with rice but setting up of textiles park and science city in the State that the government failed to respond to Centre’s offer. The Centre also released funds for a tribal museum but no steps were taken to establish it.
The Centre supplied rice worth ₹36 a kg at ₹3 a kg for public distribution in the State. The transportation charges and cost of gunny bags was also borne by the Centre.
Mr. Reddy accused the government of disbanding Indira Kranti Patham centres for paddy procurement in the State though they were an effective medium in the process.
Referring to tourism promotion programmes in the State, he said the Centre had for the first time sanctioned National Cultural Festivals for Andhra Pradesh and Telangana. They took place at Rajahmundry on March 26 and 27 and will be held at Warangal on March 28 and 29 and Hyderabad from April 1 to 3. Artistes from allover the country will perform in them.
An archives unit will be set up at Salarjung museum and sound and light system installed at Golconda fort, he added.
