Centre blocking8217; state programmes: Naidu

HYDERABAD, Jan 14: Chief Minister N Chandrababu Naidu today expressed disgust over the Central Government for blocking'' various develo...

HYDERABAD, Jan 14: Chief Minister N Chandrababu Naidu today expressed disgust over the Central Government for 8220;blocking8221; various developmental programmes launched by the state governments.

8220;All our programmes are blocked by Delhi where both politics and uncertainty reign supreme. In fact, we, sometimes, feel humiliated to approach the Centre to get approvals for even small things,8221; the chief minister said. There was a need for more decentralisation of the authority to avoid the inordinate delays in approval of the projects and sustain various programmes taken up by the states, he said.

Naidu8217;s observations came after unveiling the foundation plaque of the 8220;ICICI Knowledge Park8221;, coming up on the city outskirts, in response to ICI Limited chairman and ICICI director Ashok Ganguly8217;s remarks that there was no development in the national capital as the thrust was more on politics while states like Andhra Pradesh were witnessing a flurry of business promotion activities.

Deliberating at length on the initiatives launched by his government for developing Hyderabad as transit hub between Europe and China, the chief minister set August 15 as the outer date for completion of the first phase of knowledge park.

Pointing out to the lack of synergy between the research and development institutes, academic institutions and the industry which resulted in the country8217;s dependence on foreign technologies, Naidu outlined various steps like establishment of Indian Institute of Information Technology, the Hi-Tec city and the proposed bio-technology park for forging proper links between such institutions of excellence.

Earlier, Ganguly said that one of the major features of the proposed park, being developed phase-wise, would be a world-class networking between science and technology, academic institutions and the industry which would be equipped with all the value added services like video-conferencing. The administrative staff college of India would be the nodal point of the network.

The first phase, being developed by the Larsen and Toubro comapny at a cost of Rs 15.5 crore, comprised libraries, seminar and conference halls and administrative offices, besides ready-to-use laboratory modules.