Arun Jaitley backed special category status for Andhra Pradesh: N Chandrababu Naidu

Vijayawada: Chief Minister N. Chandrababu Naidu said on Thursday that Andhra Pradesh expects all help, support and funds from the Centre to develop the state on par with its neighbours.

Also, the political parties who supported the state bifurcation have a responsibility to support AP now, more so as the bifurcation was done ‘unscientifically’ and AP was provided with ‘too little,’ he said.

Addressing a gathering at the government’s Navanirmana Deeksha in Benz Circle here, the Chief Minister recalled that the present finance minister Arun Jaitley, who holds the key to Central funds, too had backed the special category status for AP when the state bifurcation bill was passed in the Rajya Sabha. The state’s revenue deficit was calculated at Rs16,000 crore, while only a part of the central funds due to AP were released so far, he said.

The Congress-led UPA government, he said, pushed the people of AP to a corner without providing them their due share in the bifurcation. The Congress had its political interests. YSRC leader Jagan Mohan Reddy was released from jail as part of this political plan.

“The bifurcation was done forcibly without due regard to the facts. The people of AP faced humiliation. Now, everyone of us should dedicate ourselves to the cause of AP and must show our strengths. We have such hardships that no one else is facing in this country. AP’s per capita income is the lowest compared to all other southern states,” he said.

Countries like Japan, Singapore, Dubai, Israel and South Korea were developed under effective leadership and sacrifices of the people. AP should also have such progress, he said and requested the people to cooperate with him in his dedicated efforts.

AP is a two-year-old baby and the government is taking the state forward by crossing several hurdles. Amaravati was selected as capital city for the convenience of the people. The capital should be centrally located so that the distance to it from all parts of the state would be about the same. The government would lay the road from Amaravati capital to Bengaluru by linking Kurnool and Kadapa districts, Naidu said.

The Chief Minister thanked landowners of Amaravati villages for giving their land for capital construction. Marking the occasion, he led the pledge-taking by the gathering, which said everyone will rededicate themselves to the state’ s development and strive to make AP the top state in the country in due course.

Chief secretary S. Tucker, DGP J.V. Ramudu, ministers Kamineni Srinivas, Devineni Umamaheswara Rao, MPs Gokaraju Ganga Raju and K. Srinivas were present., AP NGO leader Ashok Babu, AP secretariat employees leader Murali Krishna and several others were also present.