Date:12/11/2007 URL: http://www.thehindu.com/2007/11/12/stories/2007111259621000.htm

Andhra Pradesh

Three Telangana Ministers should quit: TRS chief

Special Correspondent

Government inaction on House panel recommendation to resume four NSL units

HYDERABAD: Telangana Rashtra Samiti (TRS) president K.Chandrasekhar Rao on Sunday demanded that three Ministers hailing from Telangana force the Government to take back the privatised four units of Nizam Sugars Factory Limited (NSL) or else to resign from the Cabinet.

He wanted them to make the Government act on the basis of the recommendations of a House Committee which went into the joint venture agreement and submitted its report two years ago.

Mr. Rao told a press conference here that the issue was coming up before the next Cabinet meeting to be held on November 13.

He said Endowments Minister J. Ratnakar Rao was the chairman of the House Committee which had unanimously recommended that the units be resumed by the Government, while Rural Development Minister G.Chinna Reddy was a member. Roads and Buildings Minister T.Jeevan Reddy had spoken vehemently against the privatisation in the Assembly in the past.

He recalled that Chief Minister Y.S.Rajasekhara Reddy as Leader of the Opposition had written a letter on the sale of NSL to then Chief Minister N.Chandrababu Naidu in 2002 opposing gifting away of the units to private companies.

Mr. Rao quoted the recommendation of the House Committee which found that the sale of NSL units under joint venture was not approved by the Cabinet, which makes the “JV null and void” requiring the Government to take back the factories.Hitting out at Congress leaders from Telangana for remaining silent on the statehood issue for the ‘sake of power’, the TRS leader accused them of ‘deceiving the people in spite of a consensus.’ The non-implementation of the House Committee recommendation on taking back NSL units for the last two years exposed the “true colours” of Dr.Reddy.

Move denounced

He denounced the Government’s move to “corporatise primary education” and announced that an all-party meeting would be convened by the TRS to chalk out an action programme. Once the party came to power after formation of Telangana, the public schools would be established in all mandals to provide free and compulsory education to children from all BPL families, he said.