MiM Demands for Seprate Metropolitan Regional Development Board for Hyderabad

Majls e Ittehadul Muslimeen Party Headquarters Darrussalam on the eve of Milad u Nabi Meeting in Hyderabad , MiM MP Asaduddin Owaisi Can be seen adressing the Gathering .

Hyderabad, April 26: All India Majlis-e-Ittehaadul Muslimeen (AIMIM) floor leader Akbaruddin Owaisi on Thursday demanded the State Government to constitute a separate Metropolitan Regional Development Board for Hyderabad.

In a statement here, Akbaruddin Owaisi recalled that since 2004, the AIMI has been demanding the revival of the regional development boards for the three regions which were abolished by the previous Telugu DesamParty government way back in 1983.

He pointed out that the regional boards for Telangana , Andhra and Rayualaseema regions were established under the Six-Point Formula hammered out in September 1973 by the Central Government in the wake of separatist agitations in Telangana during 1969-71 and in Andhra region in 1972-73. However, in 1983, the then TDP Chief Minister N T Rama Rao had abolished these regional boards without any rhyme or reason.

While welcoming the decision of the Congress government now to revive the regional boards, he,however, questioned the rationale behind the creation of two regional boards for Coastal Andhra—one for three north coastal districts and another for six south coastal districts. Regional Development Boards for Telangana, Andhra and Rayalaseema regions are enough.

Instead of creating two regional development boards for Coastal Andhra, he asked Chief Minister Dr Y S Rajasekhar Reddy to constitute a separate metropolitan regional development board for Hyderabad. He pointed out that both the central and state governments are collecting taxes to the tune of Rs 25,000 crore every year from the t win cities of Hyderabad-Secunderabad and adjoining areas. However, both the governments are providing financial assistance of less than Rs 1,000 crore annually for the twin cities under the Jawaharlal Nehru National Urban Renewal Mission and other state and central schemes implemented by the Municipal Corporation and other civic bodies.

He said that the State Government has proposed to form Hyderabad Metropolitan Development Authority besides creating the Greater Hyderabad Municipal Corporation, even though the latter issue is pending in the Supreme Court. In this backdrop, the State government should set up a separate Metropolitan Regional Development Board for Hyderabad with representation to elected representatives from the twin cities so that effective metropolitan development plans are drawn up and implemented.

MiM MP Asaduddin Owaisi Speech at IUML Conference in Kerela

MiM MP Asaduddin Owaisi Speaking at the Indian Union Muslim League Youth Wing Conference in Kozhikode, Kerala.

Kozhikode (Calicut), April 21 Muslims have fallen prey to anti-Muslim forces as there is ongoing conspiracy to suppress strong Muslim leadership in many States in the country, said Majlis e Ittehadul Muslimeen leader and Hyderabad Member of Parliament Asaduddin Owaisi while addressing a conference of Muslim Youth League, the youth wing of Indian Union Muslim League, here Friday.

"Half of the Muslim population in the country resides in Assam, West Bengal, Uttar Pradesh and Bihar; and it is in these four States that Muslims are the most backward. It is so only because Muslim leadership has not been allowed to rise and work effectively over there," Asaduddin told the audience, adding that the Sachar Committee Report has clearly pointed out the poor representation of Muslims at political levels. "Illiteracy and unemployment has become the fate of Muslims."

The Majlis leader remarked that Babri Masjid would not have been demolished had there been a strong Muslim leadership in Uttar Pradesh.

He informed the audience that he along with UML MP Abdul Wahhab recently made a visit to Nandigram in West Bengal. There he could see how backward but deserving Muslims are being deprived of educational and employment opportunities in our democracy, he added. Mr. Owaisi said that the Marxists, who decried the hanging of the former Iraqi President Saddam Hussein, did not care for the minorities as much as the `puppet' Government of Iraq cared for its former dictator. He said Nandigram and Gujarat were identical in the persecution of minorities. He said Muslims in West Bengal were being persecuted in the name of the special economic zone.

Mr. Owaisi said the Muslim MPs of the Marxist party were unable to intervene in the issues of the Muslim community. "The defeat of Muslim League in Kerala is not limited to the deprivation of this party from power rather it should be treated as tantamount to the defeat of a Muslim party in the country," he said adding that successful efforts are being made to give Muslims their due in Andhra Pradesh due only to the presence of a strong Muslim leadership there.

The Majlis leader called upon the youth participating in the conference to set their feet in the society as the strong boundary wall of a house; for if there is no boundary wall in a house, people start to use it as a way to pass by. "This boundary wall should serve to protect the community from obscenity, waywardness and illiteracy," he maintained emphasizing that it is necessary for Muslims to play the role of Khair-e-Ummah or the best of communities.