KCR defends renaming varsity after Telangana ideologue

Telangana Chief Minister K. Chandrasekhar Rao Wednesday defended renaming the Acharya N.G. Ranga Agriculture University after Telangana ideologue late Jayashankar, saying it was only the beginning.

He dismissed criticism from leaders of Andhra Pradesh to the move, saying the Telangana government has every right to name institutions after leaders from the region.

KCR - as he is popularly known - said this was done in accordance with the Andhra Pradesh Reorganisation Act.

"You live your life, we will live ours," he told his Andhra Pradesh counterpart N. Chandrababu Naidu and ministers and other leaders from the neighbouring state.

KCR advised Naidu to desist from playing petty politics on every issue and dared him to compete with Telangana in development.

On the occasion of Jayashankar's birth anniversary, the chief minister unveiled a pylon of the Professor Jayashankar State Agriculture University at the campus in Rajendernagar here.

He also laid the foundation stone for various development programmes to be taken up on the campus at a cost of Rs.10 crore.

Formed in 1965, the agriculture university in 1996 was named after Acharya N.G. Ranga, a freedom fighter, parliamentarian, educationist and farmer leader. This was done when Chandrababu Naidu was chief minister of united Andhra Pradesh.

Ranga was born in Guntur district, now part of transformed Andhra Pradesh. He died at the age of 95 in 1995.

Jayashankar, a key leader of the Telangana movement, died in 2011 at the age of 77. His birth anniversary was celebrated across Telangana Wednesday.

Leaders of the ruling Telangana Rashtra Samithi (TRS) paid tributes to the late leader on his first birth anniversary after the formation of the Telangana state.