Boycotting NITI Aayog meeting not good for TG: Union Minister

Hyderabad: Union Minister for Renewable Energy Prahlad Joshi found fault with Telangana Chief Minister A Revanth Reddy for not attending the Governing Council Meeting of NITI Ayog and criticised the West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee’s remarks after she walked out of the meeting.

Addressing the media here on Saturday, he said the Telangana Chief Minister should have attended the meeting and expressed his concerns at the meeting.

The Union Minister pointed out that boycotting the meeting does not serve the interests of the people of the State. He recalled how BRS acted similarly and how people have shunted it out of power.

Taking a dig at the West Bengal CM, he said that he had to verify what had happened at the NITI Ayog meeting. However, Mamata Banerjee claiming to represent the opposition parties is not tenable as the so-called INDIA block is not an alliance partner and the TMC chief did not allocate a single seat to the Congress in West Bengal in the recently concluded Lok Sabha polls.

On the issue of denial of allocation of funds and declaring national status to some irrigation projects, Prahland Jyoshi rubbished the charge that the Centre discriminates against Telangana. Listing out the details of the funds given to Telangana, he said Rs. 5,336 crore was allocated for railway projects in the State. Besides, 40 railway stations in the State were being developed as Amrit Bharat stations. Similarly, around Rs. 60,000 crore worth road projects are going on in the State, in addition to the Regional Ring Road project with the Central funding. We have renovated the fertilizer factory in Ramagundam. The Union Minister said some projects of the Centre were delayed due to the allocation of land from the State government and hoped the current government would expedite the process.

Jyoshi said that it is unfair to criticise the Center as it has been supporting the irrigation projects in the State. However, no DPR has been submitted seeking national status to any irrigation project so far from Telangana, he added.

He said that the Union Budget 2024-25 has been formulated with the aim of Vikasit Bharat. The PM Modi-led NDA government has its prime focus on employment, skilling, MSMEs and the middle class.

The goal of the Centre is the development and welfare of all sections of people in the country driving inclusive growth. Prime Minister Narendra Modi is working for the upliftment of the poor and many decisions were taken for the welfare of farmers in the budget. We have given priority in the budget to the main aspects like productivity, agriculture and youth employment.

On the agriculture front, he said that the previous UPA government did not implement the recommendations of the Swaminathan Committee. But, Modi’s government has been striving to make agriculture remunerative to the farmers by increasing the MSP. The extension of free ration for another five years under PM Garib Kalyan Yojana, the largest scheme in the country, and for the financial year 2024-25 agriculture and its allied sectors have been allocated Rs. 1.52 lakh crore in the union budget. He said that 109 new high-yielding varieties will be released for cultivation by farmers suitable to the climatic zones in the country.