Chief Minister K Chandrasekhar Rao on Saturday called its counter State AP as ‘third class’ State and advised it to abstain from comparing itself with Telangana, and in the same tone, he made it clear that ‘Andhra’ journalists working in the State will never be discriminated against.

Speaking to media at the TS Press Academy, whose nomenclature was changed to the Media Academy of TS, Rao expressed his displeasure with the AP government for hyphenating itself with Telangana on every issue.

“If at all Telangana has to be measured, it must be against Kerala, Gujarat, Tamil Nadu, Maharashtra and Karnataka... definitely not AP,” added KCR.

Explaining further, he pointed out, “The urban population of TS stands at 40.6% while that of AP has fallen to 22.5. That was why we announced 43% fitment to employees. AP followed the same path, but the burden on it is over `10,000 crore.

However, pointed to media gossip he said, “It’s okay if there is 80% truth and the remaining gossip. But, one or two media houses are targeting the government. If media has the right to question, the government too has the same right,” he said, adding it would be irritating to see gossip daily.

“My blood starts boiling on reading stories on Metro rail project. These are against the State’s interest,” he added.