AP government to include resource gap' in writ petition

Hyderabad: Andhra Pradesh Chief Minister N. Chandrababu Naidu has decided to drag Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s government to court on the special category status issue.

After the BJP-led NDA government came to power in 2014, the state government requested the Centre several times to issue orders for granting special status to AP. On September 8, 2016, Union finance minister Arun Jaitley, citing constraints placed by the 14th Finance Commission in granting of special status to AP, announced that the government has decided to give special assistance measure to AP wherein an amount equivalent to what the state would have got under special status would be disbursed. 

Mr Naidu welcomed Mr Jaitley’s statement, but said he would be happier with special status. He said the Centre sh-ould implement its promises “in true spirit” and in a time- bound manner. 

Another important point the AP government will include in the writ petition is the resour-ce gap for the financial year 2014-15. The AP government had estimated the resource gap to be Rs 16,078,76 crore. The central government reduced this to Rs 4,117.89 crore in the name of implementing new schemes, pensions and others. AP argues that this goes against the assurance given in the AP Reorganisation Act.