Granting of special status can only ensure development of AP: YSR Congress
Hyderabad: Only granting of the special category status to Andhra Pradesh, as promised during its bifurcation last year, would help the state in its comprehensive development and not any development packages that may come from Centre, the main opposition YSR Congress said here on Wednesday.
"A day after we staged a dharna in New Delhi, TDP (Telugu Desam Party) started its fire-fighting exercise with few (of its) MPs and a minister meeting Union finance minister Arun Jaitley who gave no categorical assurance but only spoke that the Centre may consider of giving a special package in the days to come," YSRCP leader Botsa Satyanarayana told reporters here.
He also alleged that the meeting with Jaitley was only a gimmick to divert the attention of the people.
It was amply clear that BJP which has clearly mentioned in its 2014 election manifesto that it will increase the special category status from five years to ten years if it comes to power has gone back on its word and is now searching ways and methods to evade that, the YSRCP leader alleged.
"There will be no let up in our agitation seeking special status and the August 29 bandh is the next step to mount pressure on the Centre to accord special status. It is only with the special status that the State will develop industrially and the economy will take off towards development with people getting jobs and quality of life improving," he said.
The promise of special status was made to Seemandhra (new Andhra Pradesh) by the then Prime Minister Manmohan Singh in Parliament during bifurcation last year which created Telangana.
Union minister Rao Inderjit Singh had recently said in Parliament in his reply to a query from a Bihar member that the special status would not be given to states any more. The opposition YSRCP, Congress and Left parties have since stepped up their agitation for realising the promise of special status. The issue took an emotional turn with a
Congress worker allegedly setting himself on fire at a public meeting organised by the Congress at Tirupati last week in support of the special status issue. The man later succumbed to the burns.
Meanwhile, Chief Minister N Chandrababu Naidu, whose TDP shares power with BJP both at the Centre and in AP, has said he sought an appointment with Prime Minister Narendra Modi and also Union ministers to discuss the issue.
