Hyderabad: Telangana Chief Minister Revanth Reddy on Saturday, June 6, told the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP)-led central government to stop creating rifts between the north and southern states of India. The Congress has been demanding the centre not to penalize performing south states which contribute significantly more to the Centre than they receive, he stated.
The Telangana CM’s remarks were made during a session titled ‘By, For, and Of the People: Good Governance for Telangana’, during The Hindu Huddle in Bengaluru, where Revanth Reddy was in conversation with the newspaper’s director N Ram.
“The President, Prime Minister, and Union Home Minister all hail from northern states. The 2027 Uttar Pradesh elections are approaching and the centre should prove their sincerity in the implementation of the Women’s reservation Bill in the state first,” he said. The Telangana CM further added that Prime Minister Narendra Modi resorted to “political gimmicks” on women’s reservations in the Legislative bodies.
He clarified that the Congress is opposed to linking the women’s reservation to the increase of Parliament seats. “If parliamentary seats are increased as proposed, raising Lok Sabha seats in Kerala from 20 to 30 and in Uttar Pradesh from 80 to 120. It would be unjust and this is precisely what we oppose,” stated the CM, according to a release from his office.
On the issue of the creation of jobs, the Telangana CM stated that blue-collar jobs are an alternative to white-collar jobs and that AI has not created an alternative as well. “AI can create many things, but it cannot create a politician. Our youth need to focus on alternatives and enhance their skills. There are 2 lakh vacant government jobs in Telangana and his government started recruitment. We provided 67,760 jobs in just 15 months—the highest number of jobs provided anywhere in the country,” he said.
He further added that a notification was also issued two weeks ago, and a notification for the recruitment of 5,000 police personnel will be issued soon. “Our youth are now preparing for these jobs. The recruitment agency Telangana Public Service Commission was also revamped, During KCR rule, an RMP doctor served as a member of the commission and interviewed Group-1 candidates,” the Telangana CM alleged.
The urban area within the 160-km Outer Ring Road (ORR) as CURE (Core Urban Region Economy), the area between the ORR and the Regional Ring Road (RRR) is called PURE (Peri-Urban Region Economy) and beyond the RRR as RARE (Rural Agricultural Region Economy).
Since Telangana is a landlocked state, Revanth Reddy said that he was consulting with Prime Minister Modi and Andhra Pradesh CM Chandrababu Naidu to connect the Machilipatnam port via a 12-lane highway to the state.
“We are all discussing AI these days; AI is causing the loss of white-collar jobs. That is why we established the Young India Skills University—a public-private partnership. Anand Mahindra serves as the Chairman, and Srini Raju as the Vice-Chairman. We have transformed our ITIs into Advanced Technology Centres (ATCs) at a cost of ₹2,400 crore,” he claimed.
Moreover, Revanth Reddy also criticised the Union government for not extending financial assistance and for “discriminating” against Telangana in approving investments. “In the past, short-term loans were secured at interest rates of 11 per cent to 11.50 per cent. We are currently restructuring them with interest rates of 7 to 8 per cent and converting them into long-term loans.
“We are in the process of restructuring debts worth ₹2 lakh crore. Neither the Centre nor the states are focusing on the flaws within the GST system. We have appointed Arvind Subramanian as a GST advisor. Over the past 7–8 years, monthly GST revenue never exceeded Rs 3,500 crore, but for the last six months, it has crossed the Rs 4,000 crore mark,” said the release from the CM’s office.
Stating that he views the media as a source of ‘back-office’ information, CM Revanth stated he regularly holds press conferences.
