Telangana Environment and Forest Minister Konda Surekha addressing a press conference held in Hyderabad on January 30, 2024.
| Photo Credit: By Arrangement
Telangana government has assured that there will be no impact on the environment or people, with the establishment of radar center at Vikarabad.
Permission for establishing the radar centre was given by the previous Bharat Rashtra Samithi (BRS) government in 2017 and the Congress government had allowed the centre to be set up after assessing various parameters about its impact, Environment and Forest Minister Konda Surekha said. On Tuesday, she briefed reporters about the various aspects involved in setting up the VLF centre in Damagudem reserve forest of Vikarabad and rebutted the allegations raised from some sections.
She said the process for setting up the VLF centre was initiated in 2010 when the Indian Navy held discussions with the government of the erstwhile united State. This was followed by sending notice relating to alienation of land for the purpose in 2014 and subsequently discussions were held on the change of site and the costs involved. The previous government had issued orders (G.O. Ms. 44) on December 19, 2017 handing over forest lands to the Indian Navy.
The Minister said hosting a navy radar centre should be a pride for the State, but the BRS was unnecessarily trying to politicise the issue. She recalled how former Chief Minister K. Chandrasekhar Rao insisted on handing over of Bison Polo Grounds in lieu of the land for setting up the VLF centre. The process came to a grinding halt as the BRS president believed that construction of the State Secretariat in Bison Polo Grounds would augur well for his son, K.T. Rama Rao to become the Chief Minister, she said.
Ms. Surekha asserted that setting up of the VLF centre pertained to the nation’s security and it would not serve any personal interests. She recalled how a similar centre set up at Tirunalveli in Tamil Nadu helped in all round development of the areas surrounding it. She launched a trenchant attack on the BRS leaders for trying to gain political mileage after their government was involved in taking forward the proposal. The previous government was reputed to have indiscriminately given government lands on lease for vested interests at the expense of people’s welfare.
“It is ridiculous that the BRS leaders are trying to gain political mileage out of an issue related to the national security,” she said.
