Steel plant in Khammam if AP gives 5k acres : Centre

Venkat Parsa

New Delhi : Telangana Congress MPs Manda Jagannatham, G Vivek and S Rajaiah on Tuesday met Prime Minister Manmohan Singh and Union Steel Minister Beni Prasad Verma to press for setting up a steel plant in Khammam. Verma said if the State government allotted 5,000 acres for the plant, it can be considered.

They said that after the then Union Home Minister P Chidambaram's declaration on December 9, 2009, the process for the creation of Telangana was set in motion, but no progress was made ever since. It left the people of Telangana high and dry. It was against this backdrop that they insisted that their twin aims were to achieve Telangana and secure a steel plant in Khammam. There would be no compromise on this, the Telangana Congress MPs said.

Leases allotted for mining in Bayyaram forest were cancelled by the government and the mines were allotted to the Rashtriya Ispat Nigam or the Visakhapatnam Steel Plant (VSP). The people of Telangana were agitated over the development, they said and pleaded for immediate steps to set up a steel plant in Khammam district.

Union Steel Minister Beni Prasad Verma said if the State Government allotted 5,000 acres of land, then the steel plant can be granted. A The Telangana Congress MPs urged Andhra Pradesh Chief Minister N Kiran Kumar Reddy to sanction 5,000 acres of land for the purpose of setting up of the steel plant in Khammam.

G Vivek said during the agitation for the Viskhapatnam Steel Plant, the people of Telangana supported it. In the same manner, he said, the people of Andhra region should also support the demand for locating the new steel plant in the Telangana region in Khammam.