YSR Congress Parliamentary Party Leader V. Vijaya Sai Reddy has appealed to Prime Minister Narendra Modi to extend all-round cooperation for the development of Andhra Pradesh.
Mr. Reddy made a courtesy call on the Prime Minister in Parliament on Monday.
Later, Mr. Reddy tweeted that he had discussed with the Prime Minister on the successful completion of the NITI Aayog meeting apart from various issues pertaining to the State.
Railway Minister Ashwini Vaishnaw has clarified that all arrangements were being made for the operationalisation of South Coast Railway Zone with its headquarters in Visakhapatnam. Answering a query raised by Mr. Vijaya Sai, the Railway Minister said that the Detailed Project Report (DPR), pertaining to S Co R, was approved.
Mr. Reddy also brought to the notice of the Railway Minister on the railway projects pending in the State and made some suggestions. He also sought establishment of a Railway Recruitment Board in Visakhapatnam. Though there were 21 RRB s in India, there was not even one in Andhra Pradesh due to which aspirants were forced to go to Secunderabad in neighbouring Telangana State to appear at examinations, he said.
‘Allot wagons to VSP’
He also sought that sufficient number of railway wagons should be allotted to Visakhapatnam Steel Plant (VSP) to prevent artificial scarcity of coal in the plant. The shortage of wagons was preventing the transport of coal from Mahanadi Coal Mines in Odisha to Visakhapatnam Steel Plant. This has led to the closure of one of the Blast Furnaces in VSP, impacting production at the plant. He said that it was wrong on the part of the Centre to privatise VSP, which was making a turnover of ₹28,000 crore a year.
He said that there were 2.97 lakh vacancies in the Railways and sought that they should be filled within a reasonable timeframe. While 9,529 vacancies were filled during 2020-21, 10,637 vacancies were filled during 2021-22. At this rate, it would take at least 30 years to fill all the vacancies. He also sought filling up of vacancies in the Central University.
Published - August 08, 2022 11:51 pm IST
