Centre: No steel plants for TS, AP

Factories were supposed to be set up in Bayyaram in Khammam and Kadapa in AP

The Central government has made it clear that setting up integrated steel factories in Telangana and Andhra Pradesh as assured in the AP Reorganisation Act is not possible.

According to the Central government, the AP Reorganisation Act only said, “to examine the feasibility of setting up of steel factories in TS and AP” and did not give any assurance that these would be set up. The Central government said this was conveyed to both state governments six months after the NDA government took over.

The Central government has filed an affidavit in the Supreme Court on the petition filed by Telangana Congress Legislature Party deputy leader and MLC Ponguleti Sudhakar Reddy regarding implementation of the assurances given to Telangana and AP at the time of bifurcation.

The Centre said that it has received reports that setting up steel factories in Telangana and AP is not possible, but it will set up another task force on this issue. The steel factories were supposed to be set up in Bayyaram in Khammam district in Telangana and Kadapa in Andhra Pradesh.

The Centre said that at present Mecon Company is studying the feasibility of setting up a steel factory in Kadapa and will share the information with both state governments.

A meeting of the present task force was held in New Delhi under the Union ministry of steel on Tuesday which was attended by the officials of both TS and AP, who were expecting the Centre to announce the setting up of steel factories.