KCR announces Cabinet's decision to revoke GO 111

Hyderabad: Telangana Chief Minister K. Chandrashekar Rao on Tuesday announced that the state Cabinet has decided to revoke GO 111 as Hyderabad now has sufficient water resources.

GO 111 was introduced in 1996 to protect the catchment areas of Himayat Sagar and Osman Sagar which were the main sources of drinking water in Hyderabad.

Earlier, on 15 March, KCR had said that GO 111 would soon be revoked after receiving the expert committee report. He had said the GO has caused problems to 84 villages and seven mandals accumulating as much as 1,32,000 acres of land. KCR had explained that the city has been getting sufficient water from the Godavari, Krishna, and Singur rivers.

Petrol, diesel tax

KCR said that the Telangana government has not increased the state tax for petrol and diesel. "The Centre has increased it by Re. 1 every day and is asking us to decrease the state tax even though we haven't increased it," he said.

He alleged that the BJP and the RSS have an anti-federal motto – "Strong Centre, Weak State".

Paddy procurement

During a press meet held on Tuesday, KCR criticised the Central government for not procuring Yasangi paddy from Telangana. He was outraged that the Centre was neglecting its responsibilities under the Central Food Security Act and playing tricks every time.

KCR reminded that Union minister Piyush Goyal had told him "Kya chamatkar kardiya Telangana ne? (What magic did Telangana do?)"

The CM said due to the state's farmer welfare measures, crops have grown in abundance in Telangana and the farmers are comfortable. He said that due to their actions, the crop area has increased by one crore acres. He, however, lamented that there was a complete anti-peasant government at the Centre, which was a misfortune for the Indian peasantry.

KCR lamented that the Central government was in a conspiracy to hand over the agricultural sector of the country to the corporates and that the Centre was rocking the agricultural sector with that in mind. He said the Cabinet has taken a call to procure all paddy from the state's farmers.

Airport

Stating that the Shamshabad airport is the largest airport in the country in terms of territory, KCR said the airport will get another runway and work on the second runway will begin soon. "As the fourth largest airport in the country, we have decided to go further in civil aviation. Civil aviation is growing exponentially in the world and it is also gaining momentum in Telangana," he said.

Shamshabad airport is the fourth largest airport in the country after Delhi, Mumbai, and Bangalore.