Kishan Reddy slams TRS, AIMIM for failing to connect old city

Asserting that the Centre was ready to provide all help for Hyderabad's development, Union Minister of State for Home G Kishan Reddy on Saturday hit out at the ruling TRS and AIMIM for allegedly failing to provide metro rail services to the old city of Hyderabad.

Neither the Congress in the past nor the present TRS government has taken up any development programmes in the old city, he claimed.

"Because, the Majlis (AIMIM) party there, they never aspire for development of old city. At least, if the metro train comes, the scene in old city can change. Metro (train) is the right of people in old city.

The people of the old city needs to understand the conspiracy of Majlis party in taking away the right, in which the TRS party becomes a partner and state government agrees to it and stalling metro coming to old city," he told reporters.

The Centre has agreed to provide Rs 1,458 crore (Rs 1,200 crore already given) to the metro rail project in Hyderabad and the agreement was to build metro rail up to Falaknuma in the old city, he said.

It was mentioned in the Detailed Project Report (DPR) of the project which needs to be implemented, he said.

There are several tourist attractions, including Charminar, in the old city, he said.

Reddy, BJP Lok Sabha member from Secunderabad here, was speaking to reporters after travelling by the metro rail in the newly-inaugurated stretch between Jubilee Bus Station (JBS) to Mahatma Gandhi Bus Station (MGBS) here.

He alleged that the state government has not provided land for extending the Multi-Modal Transport System (MMTS) train services from Hyderabad to the temple town of Yadagirigutta.

The state government has also not furnished its share (of funds) for the MMTS project, he alleged.

"Because of that, the MMTS second phase construction works are not fully available to people.The negligence of TRS government is the reason for this," he said.

He urged the state government to ensure that metro train service was made available to people of old city and that the second phase of MMTS be taken to Yadagirigutta.

The Centre is ready to help vis-a-vis the MMTS project besides extending all cooperation for Hyderabad's development and providing its share of funds for construction of any number of houses for the poor, he said.

Reddy said TRS working president K T Rama Rao "unnecessarily" flayed the NDA government though the Centre is ready to help the cause of development of Hyderabad.

Responding to Reddy's comments, state Animal Husbandry Minister T Srinivas Yadav alleged that the Centre was not giving funds due to the states, and the union minister should say how much funds he has got for Telangana.

Chief Minister K Chandrasekhar Rao on February 7 inaugurated an11-km stretch of the Hyderabad Metro Rail project between the Jubilee Bus Station to the Mahatma Gandhi Bus Station.

In November 2017, Prime Minister Narendra Modi had inaugurated the Miyapur and Nagole stretch of the project. Subsequently, some other stretches have been thrown open to the public.