N Chandrababu Naidu writes to Arun Jaitley on Special Assistance Measure

Vijayawada: Andhra Pradesh Chief Minister N. Chandrababu Naidu dashed out a letter to Union finance minister Arun Jaitley on Wednesday reminding him of the unfulfilled promises made in State Reorganisation Act. The Chief Minister suggested that a special dispensation amount be provided to Andhra Pradesh for specified projects from NABARD instead of loans from external agencies. “It should be disbursed as a grant from the government of India so that this will not form part of the state FRBM (Fiscal Responsibility and Budget Management) limits. This will facilitate the state government for early commencement of projects and to avail of the SAM announced to our state,” the Chief Minister said.

Mr Naidu said six projects required a total funding of Rs 16,725 crore. Of these, the DEA had already approved the AP Roads and Bridges Reconstruction Project and AP Mandal Connectivity and Rural Connectivity Improvement Project (Rs 3,200 crore each) with a proposed loan from Asian Infrastructure and Investment Bank (AIIB). The Rs 4,500-crore AP Rural Water Supply Project, with a loan from AIIB, had not been cleared by the DEA yet.

The cost of another project — Construction of Residential School Buildings — which too was pending DEA approval, had gone up to Rs 3,341 crore from Rs 3,000 crore to as per the latest estimate. This was also supposed to be taken up with a loan from AIIB. Hence, the state government was seeking funds for these projects as Central grant and not through loans from foreign banks. The state government had also submitted two new projects — the Rs 1,484-crore Amaravati Greening Development and Rs 1,000-crore AP Backward Area Rural Development to the Centre for NABARD funding.