Eatala seeks Central aid for Telangana projects

Finance Minister Eatala Rajender here on Wednesday urged the Centre to release funds to Mission Bhagiratha and Mission Kakatiya programmes as recommended by the NITI Aayog in the past. The Aayog had announced that a Central assistance of Rs 19,205 crore for Mission Bhagiratha and Rs 5,000 crore for Mission Kakatiya would be given.

Referring to the same, Rajender asked the Union Finance Minister Arun Jaitley to release the funds as per the recommendation.The Union Finance Ministry was reluctant to release the same calling them long gestation projects. But, the two missions would be accomplished in the next two years, he said adding that after bifurcation, Telangana State should be given support by the Centre till it completed its projects. Hence, a provision must be made in this year's budget for the same, he insisted.

He said the Centre had also released funds for all rural and urban



local bodies as recommended by the 13th Finance Commission in the past but Telangana was deprived of the same. There was a due of Rs 778.03 crore from the Centre and the same must be released in this year's budget, he pleaded.

He also urged the Centre to recognise 30 of the districts as backward instead of the nine as done earlier as the State had now been reshaped into 31 districts. Except Hyderabad, all other districts should be declared as backward for Central assistance purpose, he proposed.

District Tourism Officer M Shivaji expressed hope that the festival is likely to give a major thrust to tourism, especially attracting overseas tourists. He said that number of foreign tourists visited Warangal district (undivided) was over 1,000, besides 79 lakh domestic tourists in 2016. It’s learnt that authorities have already earmarked Rs 5 lakh for the conduct of the event.