KCR looks at striking rapport with PM Modi

Will invite PM to Hyderabad to address 11th Metropolis World Congress being held in Hyderabad from Oct 7

Telangana chief minister K Chandrasekhara Rao is meeting Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Saturday to pursue matters that were mostly discussed with him during his first official visit to Delhi on June 7.

He would also formally invite the Prime Minister to Hyderabad to address the 11th Metropolis World Congress being held here from October 7, according to CMO officials.

The chief minister’s officials convened a series of meetings to finalise the list of issues, including additional power to the state as well as the 4,000-mw power project promised by the Centre, and tax incentives for the industry in the backward regions to be discussed with the Prime Minister.

However, the issue of granting power to the Governor over the law and order machinery in Hyderabad is unlikely to come up for any discussion, according to the officials. It may be recalled that KCR had accused the Centre of encroaching upon the powers of the state after the home ministry wrote a letter reiterating its position in this regard.

He is rather expected to utilise this meeting to strike a rapport with the Prime Minister and to extract assurances regarding the Centre’s help on issues of development for the new state of Telangana.

A change in stance with the Centre came after a patch-up meeting held last month between him and AP chief minister N Chandrababu Naidu at the behest of Governor ESL Narasimhan. The meeting was aimed at pacifying both the leaders from fighting on issues that had a spillover effect on the Centre in dealing with the two states.

KCR’s meeting also comes in the light of comments made by some of the Union ministers, who said the Telangana chief minister was too busy to talk to the Centre to get things done for his state unlike the AP chief minister. It may be recalled that  KCR had submitted a list of 14 demands, including national status for the Pranahita-Chevella lift irrigation project.