Hyderabad, Jun 29 (IANS): Telangana Chief Minister K. Chandrashekhar Rao on Sunday urged Prime Minister Narendra Modi to name Hyderabad Central University after former Prime Minister P.V. Narasimha Rao.

The chief minister, in a letter to the Prime Minister, stated that there is a strong local public demand in Telangana to name the university after Narasimha Rao.

He requested the government to name the institution as PV Narasimha Rao Central University of Hyderabad.

The demand came on a day when the chief minister launched year-long birth centenary celebrations of Narasimha Rao.

KCR, as the chief minister is popularly known, wrote that this would be the fitting tribute to Narasimha Rao during his birth centenary year. He recalled that the university was set up in 1974 as a result of Telangana agitation at that time under the six-point formula to address the imbalance in education infrastructure in Telangana.

The former Prime Minister was born in Telangana on June 28, 1921. "Although he is famously recognized as a leader who ushered in economic reforms to bring the stagnant economy of India on a trajectory of high growth at a time of unprecedented economic crisis in 1991, he was at the same time a multi-faceted son of India who contributed the growth of our nation in several other crucial spheres," reads the letter.

KCR also noted that Narasimha Rao's contribution to education policy and setting up of residential schools first at the state level and later in the form of Navodaya Schools at national level was a radical step to provide quality education to meritorious students from rural areas with poor economic background.