Jagan Mohan Reddy to PM Modi: Help in scrapping of Council

Vijayawada: Chief Minister Y.S. Jagan Mohan Reddy urged Prime Minister Narendra Modi to direct the Union law ministry to initiate the next course of action on the two core issues of abolishing the AP state legislative council and shifting the principal seat of the Andhra Pradesh High Court to Kurnool.

Besides the two crucial demands, the Chief Minister also reiterated the demand for the grant of Special Category Status (SCS) to Andhra Pradesh, administrative sanctions for Polavaram’s revised estimate of `55,549 crore and an immediate release of the revenue deficit of `18,969 crore.

Chief Minister Reddy had a detailed discussion on various other issues in his meeting with Prime Minister Modi at the latter’s residence in New Delhi, that reportedly lasted for one-and-a-half hour.

Prime Minister Modi is reported to have had a word with home minister Amit Shah during the meeting and asked Mr Reddy to meet Mr Shah on Friday evening.

Sources said that Mr Reddy narrated in detail his objective behind the three capitals proposal in detail, besides detailing the insider trading that had taken place Amaravati, agitations by Telugu Desam and the Andhra Pradesh High Court constituting a special bench to deal with the issues relating to the shifting of the capital.

He urged Prime Minister Modi to ensure that Parliament approved the state assembly’s recommendation to abolish the bicameral house before the end of the ongoing budget session itself.

According to an official press release from the Chief Minister’s Office, Mr Reddy explained to Mr Modi his three capitals idea and the objective of achieving balanced development. He informed Mr Modi that the state assembly had passed a resolution, fixing Visakhapatnam as the executive capital, Amaravati as legislative capital and Kurnool as judicial capital.

Mr Reddy also brought to the Prime Minister’s notice how the opposition was using the legislative council as a tool to obstruct initiatives of a democratically elected government, instead of extending valuable advice.

Referring to the recent initiative to provide greater safety for women and children, Mr Reddy urged Mr Modi to instruct the ministry of home affairs to approve the Disha Bill, passed by the Andhra Pradesh assembly.

The MHA had already sent back the Bill, raising queries. A central approval is a must for the Disha Act to come into force.

On Polavaram irrigation project, the Chief Minister brought Mr Modi to speed on the progress of works and government’s resolve to finish the project by 2021. Rehabilitation would cost `33,000 crore out of the revised cost of `55,549 crore, for which the administrative sanction was pending with the centre. The state government was yet to get a reimbursement from the centre for the `3,300 crore expenditure already incurred by the state towards the project, Mr Reddy told the Prime Minister.

Maintaining that only `10,000 crore grant was received from the centre, Mr Reddy said this was the least amount the state got in recent past in form of grants.

The Andhra Pradesh chief minister reiterated his appeal for central government’s support in establishing the Kadapa steel plant, Ramayapatnam port and development of inland waterways.