Special Category Status out of agenda of AP-TS sub-panel

VIJAYAWADA: In a surprise move, the Central government has removed the Special Category Status (SCS) from the agenda of the sub-committee meeting between Andhra Pradesh and Telangana states. The Union government constituted a three-member sub-committee under the chairmanship of Joint Secretary (CS), ministry of home affairs (MHA), to carry out the preparatory work and recommend practical ways to resolve the bilateral issues arising out of the Andhra Pradesh Reorganisation Act, 2014 between Andhra Pradesh and Telangana state.

Initially, the Union government included the Special Category Status in the meeting agenda on Saturday morning which made YSRC government and cadres happy but on Saturday night, the it gave a shock to the YSRC government by removing the SCS from the meeting agenda.

The first meeting of the committee will be held on February 17 via a videoconference in which Joint Secretary of the MHA and top rank officials of finance departments of AP and TS S.S. Rawat and P. Ramakrishna Rao will attend.

The MHA first selected nine points namely, division of AP State Finance Corporation, settlement of power utilities of AP and TS, removal of anomaly in taxation matter, division of cash balance and bank deposits, cash credit by APSCSCL and TSCSCL, resource gap, development grant of seven backward districts covering Rayalaseema and North Coastal regions, Special Category Status and tax incentives.

However, the MHA removed four points from the agenda including SCS and issued fresh agenda points.

YSRC leaders Ambati Rambabu, Jogi Ramesh, Sajjala Ramakrishna Reddy and other leaders expressed happiness with the first agenda of the meeting. The YSRC leaders claimed that Chief Minister Y.S. Jagan Mohan Reddy’s arduous efforts for the SCS yielded positive results at last. The YSRC started a campaign claiming that the SCS was a live matter and not a closed history.

But all the hopes of the YSRC were dashed when BJP MP G.V.L. Narasimha Rao said he contacted the Union government authorities who clarified that the SCS did not belong to AP and TS bilateral issues hence it would not be taken into consideration for the meeting’s agenda. He asked the YSRC to stop a false campaign about the SCS as the sub-committee was appointed to resolve issues between AP and TS.

Responding to the change of agenda by the Union government, YSRC MLA Ambati Rambabu asked the BJP to disclose the reason behind the change of agenda. He alleged that Narasimha Rao, unable to digest inclusion of SCS in the agenda, pressured the government for the removal of SCS and other important points from the agenda.

He expressed suspicions that the Telugu Desam MPs on the orders of their party chief N. Chandrababu Naidu worked for the change of agenda.

Rambabu alleged that a big conspiracy hatched by the TD and its supporters in the BJP was behind the change of agenda. He asked AP people to discuss and debate on Naidu donning the role of mythological Shakuni and his coverts in the BJP to spoil benefits to AP.