Hyderabad, April 18: Chief Minister K Rosaiah said that his Delhi tour was satisfactory and productive and added that he never got such a positive response from the Union Government.
Speaking to newsmen here today after returning from his three-day Delhi tour, Rosaiah said the Union Ministers, whomever he met have shown great concern and granted whatever was requested.
His meeting with AICC president Sonia Gandhi was also very satisfactory and she expressed happiness over the functioning of the State Government, Rosaiah maintained.
He said he had discussed the Legislative Council elections with party leaders Veerappa Moily and Ahmed Patel.
He stated that though there were some reports in the newspapers that the Planning Commission would impose cuts in the plan outlay, it had approved it by adding Rs 60 crore more to what the State Government had proposed.
He informed that the PCI had approved the plan with an outlay of Rs 36,800 crore.
The Chief Minister informed that he had explained the rationale behind the implementation of Rajiv Arogyasri, Rajiv Udyogasri, power subsidies and the Self-Help Groups and also explained the projects being taken up to develop infrastructure and the PPP model projects to the Planning Commission.
When pointed out that the Centre was not happy with the State Government’s borrowings, he said there was a mismatch between the Centre’s and State’s calculations over the GSDP of the State and he explained it to the Union Finance Minister Pranab Mukherjee in detail.
As far as irrigation projects were concerned the Centre was generous, the Central Water Commission had given clearance to Pranahitha-Chevella Lift Irrigation Scheme in principle, the Union Water Resources Minister Pawan Kumar Bansal was instrumental in expediting the process to award national project status to Polavaram and Devadula, the Chief Minister said.
Rosaiah said that Union Minister for Transport and National Highways Kamalnath had promised to see that 20 State highways would be transformed into National Highways.
The Union Minister for Petroleum and Natural Gas Murali Deora had agreed to release 18 MCMD of gas to the State and also promised to give the gas to the power projects whenever the State requested and he had also promised to release 18 lakh gas connections to the State under Deepam scheme, Rosaiah said.
–Agencies