‘Move like brothers’: Kishan Reddy backs Amaravati

Hyderabad: Backing the Andhra Pradesh Reorganisation (Amendment) Bill during the debate over legal sanctity to Amaravati as state capital, Union coal minister G Kishan Reddy on behalf of Telangana BJP called for both Telangana and Andhra Pradesh to move forward "like brothers". Kishan Reddy said in the Lok Sabha that Telangana was achieved through the ultimate sacrifice of around 1,200 people and asserted that public pressure forced the Congress to grant statehood. He also accused the Congress of being responsible for the deaths of students during the Telangana statehood movement, including the alleged shooting of 369 people in 1969. Highlighting infrastructure disparities, he pointed out that Andhra Pradesh currently has seven airports while Telangana has only one, blaming successive Congress and BRS govts for the gap. Meanwhile, Congress MPs staged protests against Kishan Reddy's remarks, strongly objecting to the claim that the party was responsible for the killings during the Telangana movement.