In a letter to Prime Minister Narendra Modi, Telangana Chief Minister K Chandrashekar Rao Saturday said he will not attend the August 7 meeting of Niti Aayog’s governing council “as a mark of strong protest.”
The Telangana Rashtra Samiti (TRS) boss said the Niti Aayog was started “with the lofty objective of bringing the states on the same page with the Centre”.
“Because of no planning and no spirit of cooperative federalism, the country is passing through a most difficult phase with unprecedented problems of falling rupee value, high inflation, skyrocketing prices and increasing unemployment, coupled with low economic growth,” he wrote.
According to KCR, Telangana is one of the “trailblazing states” and there is blatant discrimination against such states.
In the letter, he reminds PM Modi of a key recommendation by the group of CMs in the Niti Aayog.
“Not all schemes contemplated, designed and finalized by the mandarins of Delhi, serve their intended purpose, considering the vast diversity and different needs of states,” he said.
The letter criticised Union government with charges of ignoring states’ rights, besides jibes over price-rise, bulldozers and communal statements.
In the letter, KCR continues his attack against the Union government for no action on the “irresponsible utterances of some leaders in high positions on use of bulldozers, encounter killings, 80:20 ratios and references with religious undertones… (that) are disrupting the communal harmony and the social fabric of the nation, besides inviting international criticism.”
“I do not find it useful to attend (the meeting)… and I am staying away from it as a mark of strong protest against the present trend of central government to discriminate against the states and not treating them as equal partners in our collective effort to make India a strong and developed country,” he further said.
