Hyderabad
Telangana industries, information technology and urban development minister K T Rama Rao (KTR) on Saturday appealed to the Centre to introduce a National Urban Employment Guarantee Scheme (NUEGS) for the urban poor in the country, on the lines of Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Scheme (MGNREGS) being implemented for providing employment to the rural poor.
KTR, as Telangana chief minister K Chandrasekhar Rao’s son is popularly called, met Union minister for urban development Hardeep Singh Puri and submitted a memorandum to this effect.
He also met Union food and civil supplies minister Piyush Goyal in the afternoon. He would be meeting Union home minister Amit Shah late in the night.
In his representation to Puri, KTR said an employment guarantee scheme for the urban poor on the lines of MGNREGS would go a long way in their economic uplift. He pointed out that a vast majority of the urban poor were working in the unorganized sector with irregular salaries, no written job contracts and with no social protection.
“This was evident during the lockdown period of Covid-19 pandemic,” the minister said and called for a long lasting solution for their problems.
KTR appealed to the Union minister give approval for extending the Hyderabad metro rail project for another 26 km, connecting the areas which were not covered in the past. He said a detailed project report had already been submitted to the Centre.
{{/usCountry}}KTR appealed to the Union minister give approval for extending the Hyderabad metro rail project for another 26 km, connecting the areas which were not covered in the past. He said a detailed project report had already been submitted to the Centre.
{{/usCountry}}KTR brought to the notice of the Centre the proposal of the state government to extend the metro rail network up to Shamshabad airport. The preliminary estimate of the project cost was ₹3,050 crore, he said and urged the Centre to sanction ₹450 crore towards a 15 percent equity.
Among others, the minister also sought central assistance for development of link roads in Hyderabad under the Hyderabad Road Development Corporation Limited (HRDCL).
Pointing out that the Greater Hyderabad Municipal Corporation (GHMC) was adjudged as the ‘Best Capital City in Solid Waste Management’, KTR requested Puri to sanction ₹400 crore for solid waste management projects in the city, besides ₹744 crore for sewerage treatment plants and sewer network systems.
At a meeting with Piyush Goyal, KTR sought allocation of an additional parboiled rice target of 20 lakh metric tonnes for the Rabi 2022-23 season.
The Centre allocated 10.20 lakh tonnes of parboiled rice target for the state, milled from 15 lakh tonnes of paddy, leaving a balance of 51.11 lakh tonnes of paddy to be milled for delivery of raw rice to FCI.
“The financial implication for delivery of one lakh tonnes of raw rice to the FCI works out to ₹42.08 crore due to the additional percentage of broken rice. The total financial implication, if state had to deliver for the balance 34.24 lakh tonnes in the form of raw rice works out to ₹1,441 crore,” KTR said.
He said paddy cultivation in the state during this Rabi season was 57 Lakh acres, which was more than 50 percent of the entire paddy acreage in the country. The state government had procured 66.11 lakh tonnes of paddy during this Rabi season, he pointed out.