Meets Central Ministers Piyush Goyal and Hardeep Singh Puri
PNS|Hyderabad
Municipal Administration and Urban Development Minister KT Rama Rao called on the Union Minister for Housing and Urban Affairs, Hardeep Singh Puri, and Union Minister Piyush Goyal in New Delhi on Saturday. After meeting three Union Ministers, KTR couldn’t meet Amit Shah. The meeting with Union Home Minister Amit Shah was could not materialised as the later was busy with a series of meetings. Minister KTR will return at 10.30am on Sunday morning.
KTR said that he updated Piyush Goyal on the progress of the Kakatiya Mega Textile Park and how it has become an important example for promoting textile manufacturing. He
briefed Piyush on the development of agriculture and how Telangana today produces nearly 50% of paddy in the country. He requested his support to procure an additional 20 lakh MT of parboiled rice from Telangana for Rabi 2022-23.
In his letter, he said, “The Centre fixed a target to collect 10.20 lakh tonnes of parboiled rice for the State (15 lakh tonnes of paddy) leaving a balance of 51.11 lakh tonnes of paddy to be milled for delivering raw rice to the FCI. The financial obligation for delivering one lakh tonnes of raw rice to the FCI works out to Rs 42.08 crore due to the additional percentage of broken rice and the total financial implication if the State has to deliver the balance of 34.24 lakh tonnes in the form of raw rice works out to Rs 1441 crore.”
He also made various requests to Hardeep Singh Puri, seeking the Centre’s assistance in areas like the “funding for Metro expansion from BHEL to Lakdi Ka Pul and from Nagole to LB Nagar, financial support for improving the road network and link roads in Hyderabad city, launching of a national urban employment guarantee scheme for the urban poor on the lines of MNREGA. financial support for STPs and to increase the capacity of leachate treatment plants, support for the Telangana Sanitation Hub, and mass rapid transit system estimated to cost Rs 3,000 crore in Hyderabad and Warangal.”
He said that the TS government and the Administrative Staff College of India (ASCI) developed a blueprint for the Sanitation Innovation Hub in Telangana and seed commitment was made by the State.
Hardeep Singh Puri expressed admiration for the sanitation hub initiative of the Telangana government and acknowledged that the Sanitation Hub will address numerous challenges in the development of municipalities. The Union Minister asked the State to share its innovative ideas and provide details at an upcoming meeting organised by his Ministry.
KTR appealed to the Centre to introduce a National Urban Employment Guarantee Scheme (NUEGS) on the lines of the Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Scheme (MGNREGS) to help the urban poor.
He also sought financial assistance to provide a Mass Rapid Transit System (MRTS) in the Kokapet area on the west side of Hyderabad which is fast developing as the new Central Business District (CBD). Preliminary estimates of the MRTS is Rs 3050 crore. He appealed for a contribution of Rs 450 crore from the Centre.
On extending missing link roads connectivity up to Outer Ring Road, KTR said that 104 additional corridors have been identified for taking up at an estimated cost of Rs 2400 crore. He urged the Centre to contribute Rs 800 crore for the project.
KTR appealed to the Union Minister for Central support for the scientific treatment and disposal of legacy leachate for waste management including the procurement of tertiary vehicles with closed containers and the development of modern transfer stations.
He said that it would take Rs 3722.82 crore to establish three Sewerage Treatment Plant (STP) clusters under the proposed Sanitation Project and the development of a Sewer Network Infrastructure for Liquid Waste Collection in Hyderabad city. He asked the Centre to sanction 20% of the project cost, that is, Rs 744.56 crore.
