Jagan meets Shah, seeks forensic varsity in Tirupati

Vijayawada: Chief Minister Y.S. Jagan Mohan Reddy on Thursday met Union home minister Amit Shah to seek the establishment of a national forensic sciences university (NFSU) in Tirupati, resolve issues of Andhra Pradesh bifurcation, release pending dues and discuss decentralised development through the three-capital plan.

The meeting, coming a day after the Chief Minister met Prime Minister Narendra Modi, lasted for 40 minutes, sources said.

For a second consecutive day, he continued to voice complaints about Telangana state, urging Shah to intervene and restrain the Telangana state government for acting unilaterally in drawing water from Krishna River, in alleged violation of operational procedures, to generate electricity.

He sought environmental clearances for the Rayalaseema Lift Irrigation Scheme to supply 3 tmc ft water per day to Telugu Ganga Project, Srisailam Right Bank Canal and Galeru Nagari Sujala Sravanthi project.

Reiterating his demand for the NFSU, Jagan Mohan Reddy said that Tirupati is turning into an educational hub and that a varsity would serve the increasing demand for criminal investigation infrastructure. He assured that the government would allot the required land for the same.

The Chief Minister asked Shah to release arrears of Rs 32,625.25 crore, which includes resource funding of Rs 18,330.45 crore for the 2014-15 fiscal, pension arrears, reimburse Rs 2,937.92 crore spent on Polavaram project and resolve other pending issues between Andhra Pradesh and Telangana, including collection of  6,886 crore from Telangana discoms.

Further, he requested Shah to fix the cost of the Polavaram project at Rs 55.548 crore, as recommended by the project’s technical advisory committee, do away with component-wise cost assessment as it causes delays, amend flawed provisions of the National Food Security Act, grant 14 more medical colleges to the state, allot mines to meet iron ore requirement of steel plant being built at Kadapa and extend cooperation for the proposed 76.9-km Metro project in Visakhapatnam.

Sources said that the Chief Minister received good responses from the Prime Minister and the home minister over his explanations of political conditions in the two Telugu states, political strategies and probable poll alliances.