Hyderabad: The Telangana state Cabinet on Sunday appealed to the Union government “not to discriminate on basis of religion while according Indian citizenship”.
The Cabinet urged the Central government to take measures to abrogate the Citizenship (Amendment) Act (CAA), 2019, which “discriminated on basis of religion while granting citizenship, and thereby jeopardising secularism as envisaged in the constitution.”
It reminded the Centre that all religions must be treated as equal before law. The State Cabinet further decided to pass a resolution to this effect in the Assembly akin to resolutions passed by the legislative houses of Kerala, Punjab, Rajasthan and West Bengal.
The Cabinet meeting, chaired by Chief Minister K. Chandrasekhar Rao, also decided to finalise guidelines for the proposed programme on February 18 and hold a state-level municipal conference at Pragati Bha-van. The Cabinet also decided to take all participants, including mayors, municipal chairpersons, commissioners, MLAs, collectors, additional collectors who attend the municipal conference should be taken on a visit to Gajwel mandal in Siddipet in the afternoon to visit various facilities, including vegetable and meat markets and cremation grounds. The Cabinet approved the Lokayukta ordinance and decided to introduce the Bill in the Budget Session of TS.
In the Cabinet meeting, Chief Minister Rao also asked officials not to trouble street vendors till an alternative land was shown to them.
The cabinet also decided to organise Pattana Pragathi programme for 10 days beginning from February 24 in all towns and cities across the state.
According to the Chief Minister’s Office (CMO), while speaking at the meeting, Mr Rao hoped that the Pattana Pragathi programme should lay a strong foundation for the best urban living and its goal should be a journey towards it.
He said that urban areas should reflect cleanliness, good sanitation and greenery and that there should be a planned development so that citizens could get better services. He said that steps should be initiated to improve living standards of people in urban areas.
It was decided to hold the Pattana Pragathi taking the ward as a unit and appoint a special officer for every ward and identify works to be done ward-wise, besides those identified at town and city-level. The Cabinet resolved to identify illiterates as part of Pattana Pragathi programme. The government would release Rs 78 crore per month for GHMC and Rs 70 crore for other municipalities and corporations in the state from the Finance Commission.
The Cabinet has decided to allocate Rs 311 crore for the GHMC and Rs 500 crore for municipalities and corporations in the state from the Rs 811 crore fund to be received from the 14th Finance Commission.
The Cabinet resolved to give priority to develop greenery, sanitation work, cleaning of drainages and fill up sewer pits and plant sapling in large numbers and identify places in each ward to set up plant and sapling nurseries.
The Cabinet has decided to provide 3,100 vehicles for sanitation works to municipalities and corporations. Mr Rao informed the Cabinet that 600 vehicles have already arrived and the remaining 2,500 should be arranged immediately they should be sent to various beneficiary towns.
It was resolved to strengthen drinking water network in urban areas and improve main roads and internal roads in and fill up the potholes. It was decided to select sites to set up vegetable and meat markets and constructs public toilets, besides exclusive she-toilets for women.
The responsibility for reviewing the Abhaya Hastham scheme has been entrusted to finance minister Harish Rao and panchayat raj secretary Sandeep Sulthania.
The CM congratulated ministers from Warangal district Errabelli Dayakar Rao and Satyavathi Rathod for the successful conduct of Sammakka Saralamma Medaram Jatara.
