Shamshabad airport to be renamed after NTR
Hyderabad: After pitching in for construction of a befitting memorial for former Prime Minister P V Narasimha Rao in the national capital, Telugu Desam Party president and Chief minister-designate for Andhra Pradesh Nara Chandrababu Naidu sought to further embarrass the Congress bosses by demanding that Rajiv Gandhi International Airport at Shamshabad in Hyderabad be renamed as NTR International Airport.
Addressing the party's Mahanadu on the second day organized at Gandipet, the TDP president declared that he would strive to get the Shamshabad airport renamed after late Chief Minister N T Rama Rao.
Paying rich tributes to NTR, the founder-president of the TDP, on his 91st birth anniversary, Naidu recalled that the old airport at Begumpet was called NTR International Airport.
After it was proposed to be shifted to Shamshabad, the name should have been continued. But the previous Congress government headed by Y S Rajasekhara Reddy unceremoniously changed it in the name of Rajiv Gandhi to please the latter's widow and Congress boss Sonia Gandhi.
'Now that Union Civil Aviation Minister (Ashok Gajapathi Raju) is our man, I will pursue the issue with the Centre and get the Hyderabad airport named after NTR,' Naidu said.
Meanwhile, the TDP also urged the Centre to confer Bharat Ratna, the country's highest civilian honour on NTR. A resolution to this effect was unanimously adopted at Mahanadu.
'It is the desire of all Telugus to see Bharat Ratna conferred on NTR. I will request Prime Minister Narendra Modi to honour NTR with the highest civilian award. I will pursue the issue till the end,' the TDP president announced, while moving the resolution.
He said NTR was the doyen of Telugu cinema and later carved out a niche as a political leader of tall order not only in Andhra Pradesh, but also in the country.
News Posted: 29 May, 2014
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